A 50-year-old bottle of rare scotch whisky has a new home, after a Vancouver hotel bought the $45,000-bottle.
The bottle of single malt scotch whisky from the Balvenie Distillery was bought by the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel Wednesday night. It's one of just 131 bottles released this year, and it's the only bottle to be offered in Canada.
The distillery held a draw to determine who would get to take home the prized bottle, which was being stored under lock and key at the BC Liquor Store on Cambie Street. Potential buyers entered their name through a lottery system for a chance to purchase the rare alcohol.
The whisky will be available to buy by the ounce at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. However, the hotel has not said how much it will cost.
"We haven't quite worked it out now," said Grant Sceney, a Fairmont staff member who works in the hotel’s cocktail program. He noted that, at cost, the whisky breaks down to about $2,000 an ounce.
"It's already quite expensive, so we haven't really worked out what we're going to sell it for. But we want to make it approachable,” he said.
Balvenie brand ambassador Beth Havers said Vancouver was chosen as the city to hold the draw, because it has a "very discerning” population of whisky drinkers.
With files from CTV Vancouver
