Tourist attraction shifts pricey Scotch in three days

Edinburgh’s Scotch Whisky Experience has sold its most expensive object ever to a visitor from Burma, just three days after it was put on display.

The item, a limited edition Ardbeg Double Barrel, was priced at £10,000. It contains two single cask bottles of Ardbeg 1974 in a specially crafted guncase.

The Scotch was both the visitor attraction’s most expensive object and its latest addition. The Ardbeg Double Barrel went on display on Monday 17 August with other rare collections in the specialist whisky shop within The Scotch Whisky Experience next to Edinburgh Castle.

Three days later it was snapped up by a visitor from Burma, who will be taking it home at the end of the month.

The guncase holds, along with the two bottles of Scotch, eight solid silver drinking cups and a bespoke oak and sterling silver Omas pen complete with Ardbeg engraving. There’s also two hand-stitched leather bound books originally used as a “Sampling Register”, detailing full tasting notes of the 1974 cask bottling.

The 1974 is the oldest and rarest of the Ardbeg single Islay malts, and only 250 of the Double Barrel cases were created.

Patrick Schmitt, 24.08.2009