가장 오래된 위스키로 추정되는 제품 경매 - 최고 7년 숙성

2006년 11월 29일

 

Glenavon Special Liqueur Whisky

 

Northern Ireland의 Armagh에 사는 한 부인이 1920년대 부터 자신의

할머니집에서 수대째 보관하고 있던 약400ml의 올리브 그린색 병에 담긴

위스키를 경매에 내놓았습니다.

 

이 위스키는 수대에 걸쳐서 가문 대대로 물려져 온 것이라고 합니다.

 

이 위스키는 Ballindalloch에 위치한 Glenavon Distillery에서 생산한 것으로,

이 증류소는 Glenlivet Distillery의 설립자인 George Smith의 아들인

John Smith가 1849년 Delnabo에 작은 증류소를 설립하여, 1851년에

Banffshire로 옮겨서 Glenavon Distillery로 이름지었으며, 그 후 7년 뒤인

1858년에 가동을 중지하고, 모든 설비와 위스키를 Glenlivet Distillery의 한

Site인 Minmore Distillery로 이전하였습니다.

 

따라서, 이 위스키는 최고 7년 정도 숙성 시킨 위스키이며, 병에 담겨진 해가

1858년 이전 입니다.

 

병입을 약 150년 전에 한것이며, 자칫 150년 숙성 위스키로 혼동하시지 않기를

당부드립니다.

 

이 위스키는 지난 2006년 11월 29일 런던의 Bonhams 경매장에서

14,850 파운드에 낙찰되었습니다.

 

Glenavon Special Liqueur Whisky

 

A bottle of whisky which experts believe could be the oldest in existence has sold

at a Bonhams auction house in London for £14,850.

 

The Glenavon Special Liqueur Whisky is believed to have been bottled about 150 years

ago at the Glenavon Distillery, which was located in Banffshire.

 

There was gobal interest in the sale, with bidders from the Far East and US.

 

The bottle, which has been owned by an Irish family for generations, eventually went

to an anonymous bidder.

 

The bottle has been in the family of a woman in Ireland for several generations.

 

The bottle has been put up for sale by a woman from County Armagh in Northern Ireland,

whose family has had it for generations.

 

Bonhams is maintaining client confidentiality, but said the woman remembers the bottle

being in her grandmother's home in the 1920s.

 

The green bottle is unusually small in size and holds about 14fl oz (about 400ml) of

pale gold liquid.

 

It is believed to have been bottled by the Glenavon Distillery between 1851 and 1858.

 

However, uncertainty surrounds its exact age.

 

The label reads "Glenavon - Special Liqueur Whisky Bottled by the Distillers," but

Glenavon stopped operating in the 1850s.

 

Experts have said that if the whisky was indeed "bottled by the distillers", it could be

the oldest to come to auction.

 

The Glenavon Distillery was licensed to John Smith, son of George Smith, founder of the

nearby Glenlivet Distillery.

 

John Smith joined his father in the business in 1846 and established a small distillery

at Delnabo in 1849.

 

Bonhams' consultant Charles MacLean said: "It has been suggested that Delnabo and

Glenavon may have been one and the same.

 

"What is certain is that the Smiths closed Delnabo in 1858, and in the following year they

consolidated all their distilleries - including Glenavon/ Delnabo - at Minmore, the site of

the present Glenlivet Distillery."

 

Mr MacLean said the label implied that it was bottled before the move to Minmore.

 

"Yet even if it had been bottled by the Smiths after the closure of Glenavon, authentic

bottles of Scotch from the 1870s are extremely rare," he said.

 

"John Smith died in 1901, so we know it was bottled before then."