VERY RARE AND UNUSUAL BOTTLE OF LAPHROIG

ADDED TO BONHAMS WHISKY SALE IN EDINBURGH

An exceptional and very rare bottle of early 20th Century Laphroaig Old Liqueur, estimate £6,000-7,000

An exceptional and very rare bottle of early 20th Century Laphroaig Old Liqueur is a last minute addition to Bonhams Whisky sale in Edinburgh on 9 December. It is estimated at £6,000-7,000.

It was distilled and bottled by D. Johnston & Co., Laphroaig Distillery, Isle of Islay and is described  on the label – unusually for a single malt from Islay – as ‘non-peaty’.

Bonhams Whisky specialist Martin Green explains how this came about, “I believe it would have been bottled from an autumn cask filling. The ‘non-peaty’, nature of the whisky is almost certainly the result of distilling after a particularly long dry summer when the water supply would have contained fewer of the natural peaty phenols which give Laphroig and other Islay malts their characteristic nose and taste. As you can imagine, bottles like this appear extremely rarely and it could be many years until a similar bottle comes onto the auction market, if ever.”

The bottle comes from a distinguished collector who has owned it since it was discovered at Alexander McGavin’s, No. 12 Bond, Robertson St., Glasgow in the early 1980s. The auction is on the 9th of December, 2015

NOTES

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world’s largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. Today, the auction house offers more sales than any of its rivals. The main salerooms are in London, New York and Hong Kong. Sales are also held in the UK in Knightsbridge and Edinburgh; in the US, in San Francisco and Los Angeles; in Europe, in Paris and Stuttgart and in Sydney, Australia. Bonhams also has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full listing of forthcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, please visit bonhams.com.