Yahoo Finance World's most expensive shot of whisky exposed as a fake
A dram of rare whisky bought for a record $10,000 has been exposed as a fake.
The single shot of Scotch, poured from a previously unopened bottle labelled as an 1878 Macallan single malt, was, in fact, not vintage at all.
Test have shown the whisky was a blended Scotch from the early 1970s.
Specialist analysts from Scotland were called in by the Waldhaus Am See hotel in St Moritz, Switzerland after numerous aficionados questioned the authenticity of the 2cl shot.
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It was sold to Chinese millionaire Zhang Wei, 36, who paid just under 10,000 Swiss francs (£7,600, $10,050) for the single shot while visiting the hotel’s Devil’s Place whisky bar in July.
The record price created a big buzz in the whisky world – and alerted experts who doubted its provenance when pictures of the cork and label were published.
Hotel manager Sandro Bernasconi contacted leading consultants Rare Whisky 101 to arrange the tests, which involved carbon dating at the University of Oxford, and further scientific tests on the composition of the liquid.
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The carbon dating revealed a 95% probability that the spirit was created between 1970 and 1972.
Alcohol analysts Tatlock and Thomson reported that the whisky was probably a blended Scotch, comprising 60% malt and 40% grain – ruling it out as a single malt.
Bernasconi flew to Asia to tell Zhang, one of China’s most successful online writers, the results in person.
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“I gave him the money back,” Bernasconi told Scotchwhisky.com. “That’s the only right thing to do.
“He wasn’t angry with us – he was disappointed. But he said it was a great evening and a great experience in our hotel, whatever the test results.”
RW101 co-founder David Robertson said: “The more intelligence we can provide, the greater the chance we have to defeat the fakers and fraudsters who seek to dupe the unsuspecting rare whisky consumer.”
