Need A Stiff One? That'll Be $862 A Shot Please

(From Reuters)

At $862.7 a sip it is one of the world's most expensive tipples this Christmas.

For connoisseurs with the pocket, British drinks giant DIAGEO
is selling a JOHNNIE WALKER whisky blend at $24,150
(14,000 pounds) a bottle to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Scotsman who created the world's best-selling whisky brand.

The group which distills one-third of the world's scotch has selected Scotland's best whiskies, all over 30 years old and some as old as 70 years old, to create its 1805 anniversary pack -- containing just one bottle -- to be sold to the world's most discerning drinkers.

The world's largest alcoholic drinks company, which also makes SMIRNOFF VODKA and GUINNESS BEER, is selling just
200 bottles of the high-priced spirit to spice up interest in whisky in the run up to the Christmas.

One of the 200 bottles was sold at a recent auction in Shanghai for 14,000 pounds, and another was broken open by DIAGEO's Master of Blending JIM BEVERIDGE, who created the blend, at
a briefing on Scottish whisky in London on Wednesday.
[Jim Beveridge, great name for a blend master. Sorry Gerstel.]

Beveridge said he used whiskies predominantly from Scottish distilleries that no longer exist to create a special Scotch at
"500 pounds a sip," while it had been a blender's dream to use the world’s most precious whisky stocks.

Rare vintage wines are also known to fetch high prices.
A 109-year-old bottle of exceptionally rare Italian vintage red wine, described by experts as a "work of art," was sold at auction for 9,300 pounds in 2000.

Scott O'Leary, thanks for the post.