Whisky for sale: $200,000 a bottle

Would you pay $200,000 for a bottle of whisky? And would you drink it if you did? Six high rollers have already bought a diamond-encrusted, porcelain bottle of the precious 45-year-old Scotch whisky.

“We’ve sold six to date,” says Colin Scott, Master Blender for Royal Salute and Chivas Regal, who launched Royal Salute's “Tribute of Honour” whisky to a VIP group at Crown last night.

Bottles have been sold to a collector in France, another in Taiwan, and businessmen in Macau and Beijing. Scott is hoping that a buyer from Australia will be lucky number seven.

Scott is the only person to have tasted the whisky, and says it’s like the “iron fist and the velvet glove”, with intensely powerful, complex flavours, but with a luxurious smoothness.

“When you pour it into the glass the aromas just waft through the air, these wonderful rich fruit flavours, nut flavours, florals, and a subtle hint of smokiness,” says Scott, adding that it conjures the essence of ripe plums, Christmas cake and the sweetness of warm chocolate pudding.

Of course, it’s expected that none of the buyers will actually drink the whisky and that it will be for display only. “It’s a complete work of art,” says Scott. The porcelain decanter is hand-crafted in France, made with white clay from New Zealand, and its neck is encrusted with 413 hand-cut black and white diamonds, a tribute to Scotland’s Crown Jewels.

Those who do cough up the cash just buy the bottle. They are then flown (if it suits) to Royal Salute’s Scotland distillery where the whiskey is decanted and sealed.

For those who are keen on a tipple, each buyer will receive a 200ml bottle, made for drinking. For others, it might be an heirloom, handed down through the generations. Scott reckons that, kept at an even temperature, the whisky will “keep forever”, and that there’s no reason you couldn’t drink it 200 years from now.

Royal Salute’s “Tribute of Honour” whiskey is available at Dan Murphy’s.