Rare whisky is supposed to be in decline. An extensive industry analysis published recently by Noble & Co reveals that sales of top-shelf scotch fell 24% by volume and 34% by value from Q2 to Q3 of 2024.
Yet, the ongoing parade of five-figure bottles hardly seems to be slowing. Recent releases include the Glen Grant 65 Year Old, one of the costliest expressions to come out of the legendary Speyside stillhouse. Now its next-door neighbour, the Glenrothes, is following suit with “The 51” — the oldest and rarest single malt in its 146-year history.
Just 100 bottles will be available worldwide, priced at GBP37,000 ($46,500) apiece. Collected from just two sherry-seasoned casks filled in the 1970s, it projects vibrantly floral aromatics: rose, tulips and Earl Grey tea. Its rounded body reveals melon fruit reminiscent of cantaloupe and watermelon — atypical characteristics for whisky from this part of the world. An extended finish is prickly with allspice but takes a sweet turn, ultimately evoking Tarta de Santiago, a Galician almond cake.
“One cask was delicate and ethereal in character, and the other was richer and sweeter,” master whisky maker Laura Rampling says about the stock selected for the final vatting. “Combined, they tell the story of how our delicate new make spirit ages with a counter-intuitive robustness, able to retain and, indeed, intensify in elegance over decades of maturation without becoming overpowered by the wood of the cask.”
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Naturally, this effusive, flowery sort of language is going to stem from the maker herself; more and more, they are the only ones who taste it. In high-end spirits, collecting rarely equals enjoying.
The expression’s major gimmick — that each numbered bottle comes fully encased in a concrete-looking column of Jesmonite (a gypsum-resin composite) — might be its salvation. The only way to access, or even see, the mahogany-coloured prize at its core is by smashing through the shell with a purpose-built flathead hammer included in the packaging.
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Why does this matter? In one word: resale.
Extravagant design has been a hallmark of high-end bottlings for years. It’s the most reliable way to attract the attention of collectors and investors, who are often intrigued by elaborate presentation, perhaps more so than by what exists within all that fancy glass. By forcing collectors to destroy the packaging, the 51 uses artistic novelty to stifle a secondary market rather than encourage it.
“This is a whisky that’s effectively impossible to resell — at least at public auction,” Jonny Fowle, global head of whisky for Sotheby’s, says.
Each Jesmonite shell may have a plaque and be numbered out of 100, but he continues: “If the outer casing is intact then you can’t confirm what is inside it. Once the casing has been smashed, then the product is intrinsically damaged. It’s like trying to sell a bottle without the presentation case.”
If you don’t break the 51’s casing, you’ve got a rather dull, uninspiring canister on your shelf that will be more difficult to sell later. But those who do get hammered with their bottle are invited to return the shattered shards of Jesmonite to the distillery and let a kintsugi artist reassemble the column, filling the cracks with gold in accordance with the traditional Japanese practice.
“We wanted to find a way for each bottle to be radically exclusive to its owner,” says Rampling of the bespoke art piece that gets returned. “This act of destruction is intensely personal — each column will break in its own unique way.”
Collectors could always break the column, receive the art piece and keep the actual bottle unopened, but with the effect on resale to be determined, it’s a gamble. And all very clever. The Glenrothes have forcibly designed the 51 for appreciation rather than speculation, which is great news for the future of the category.
Fowle, who oversees one of the whisky world’s most prominent secondary marketplaces, agrees. “It’s really good for us when people drink their whiskies,” he says. “There used to be the added spice of consumer-introduced rarity through stock depletion. That has all but disappeared from the top end of the industry now.”
