The single malt dates back to November 1975 and broke the previous record of £1m which was set in April this year, the Financial Times reports. Known as Cask No 3, the whiskey was produced at the 207-year-old Ardbeg Distillery on the Scottish island of Islay. It sold for more than double that of the distillery and its entire stock was bought in 1997. Thomas Moradpour, chairman and chief executive of Ardbeg owner Glenmorangie, a subsidiary of luxury goods group LVMH, said the record-breaking cask was a source of pride for the local community. He said the people of Islay had seen the distillery come back from the brink of extinction to become “one of the most sought-after whiskeys in the world”. Each of the 88 bottles was priced at around £36,000 each. They will be taken from the barrel for each of the next five years and delivered to the buyer. Author and whiskey expert Charles MacLean described the £16m cask as ‘a remarkable piece of liquid history’, adding: ‘The factors that make a particular whiskey an investment are three: rarity, flavor and variety. “And collectors love Scotch because of the provenance and history.” Bill Lumsden, head of distilling and whiskey creation at Ardbeg, said: “I’ve only really tasted a whiskey like this two or three times in my career. “It has an emotional, comforting quality that I find hard to put into words.” He said the casks from the 1970s left in the distillery’s warehouses could be counted “in a handful of hands”, adding that most whiskeys from that era were put into blends, meaning single malts are rare. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The record sale comes after supermarket Morrisons mistakenly priced bottles of a Scotch whiskey at just £2.50, a 93% discount from the usual price of £36 last month. Glenlivet Caribbean Reserve is described by the distillery as a new rum-cask-finished single malt scotch that “combines the heritage of Scotch whiskey with the flavor and soul of the Caribbean.” Whiskey lovers flocked, posting their joy on social media, only to discover their large orders had been canceled at the last minute. The pricing error was discovered by Morrisons and due to minimum unit pricing legislation which made it illegal to charge for each bottle, the retailer canceled all orders.
