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The spirit was thrilling but the price is steep.
Very steep. At $30,000 a bottle, 50-year-old The Balvenie Cask 191, two bottles of which arrived under armed Brinks guard at a Toronto liquor store yesterday as part of a publicity stunt, is being billed as the most expensive liquid bought by the LCBO.
To the palpable delight of organizers, about 25 reporters and drinks critics dutifully showed up with uncommon punctuality at the huge Summerhill liquor store on Toronto's Yonge Street to partake of a tutored tasting of the single malt Scotch, led by kilt-clad Balvenie international brand ambassador David Mair.
But the flavour was clearly upstaged by the product's stratospheric price, a shrewd marketing gambit on the part of the importers.
"We're not trying to set a world record for price," said Todd McDonald, national director of fine wines and spirits for PMA Canada Ltd., the brand's local agent.
"But if I can draw a crowd ...," he added, with a rhetorical pause implying the point had been made. "It's pretty cheap advertising."
Few consumer product purveyors dare to trumpet the exorbitance of their prices as an actual virtue. But this is the spirits world, where flavour nuances are as subtle as they are subjective, and where bragging rights can be more of a draw than the fleeting liquid in the bottle.
The past few years have seen a parade of "rare," bottles proudly promoted at stratospheric prices. In 2005, a bottle of The Macallan 1926 single malt was ceremoniously sold for $75,000 (U.S.) at a liquor store in Seoul, while a bottle of The Dalmore 62 Years recently changed hands for $51,000. And various spirit companies routinely stage similar publicity events with precious bottles from supposedly long-lost casks that are miraculously uncovered in a corner of the distillery by accident.
Curiously, most Scotches, if left in cask for 50 years, wouldn't be worth blending into a Rusty Nail. By that age, the wood tends to impart too much of a lumber flavour, turning the spirit into a syrupy goop with an aroma of stale church pew. But there are exceptions.
Mr. Mair said in an interview that this particular cask, an Energizer Bunny of whiskies, just kept going.
"We've had our eyes on this cask for many years. We can't plan a maturation this long. It's just something that seems to happen. ... The flavours never deteriorated. They accumulated."
To generate suspense, Mr. Mair began yesterday's tasting by "nosing" his way through a trio of more affordable Speyside Balvenie whiskies. Then came precious half-thimble pours of the Cask 191, dispensed from a tray to the seated media.
How did the star attraction taste? Judging by the oohs and ahhs, pretty amazing.
But here's the irony: Its price may prove a far more compelling feature to potential buyers, eight of whom, Mr. McDonald said, called in advance of the event to indicate interest, including an unidentified "billionaire from Calgary."
Mr. McDonald said he was told by a media specialist recently that the attendance at yesterday's event would be worth the equivalent of $300,000 in advertising because of the free articles that would presumably be written.
Not that the two bottles of Cask 191 will need the help, but the coverage will generate what fine beverage purveyors like to call a "halo effect" for the more widely available products in the Balvenie portfolio, such as the $60 (Canadian) Balvenie DoubleWood.
Coincidentally, a few hours after the event, across town, rum purveyor Havana Club was staging its own media shindig to promote - as the press release called it - "the most expensive rum ever to be sold in Canada." Rum fans can purchase Havana Club Maximo Extra Anejo for $2,000 a bottle starting Saturday.
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