World’s most expensive dram of Scotch, turns out to be fake!
03 Nov 2017
A dram of vintage Scotch bought by a Chinese millionaire in a Swiss hotel bar for £7,600 turned out to be fake, according to laboratory tests.
The Waldhuas Am See hotel in St Moritz called in analysts to check the authenticity of a shot that was questioned by experts. The shot had been poured from an unopened bottle labelled as an 1878 Macallan single malt.
It is said to be the largest sum ever paid for a poured dram of Scotch, but on analysis it was found to have not been distilled before 1970.
The hotel accepted the findings and reimbursed the customer in full. Zhang Wei, 36, from Beijing - one of China's highest-earning online writers - had paid just under 10,000 Swiss francs (£7,600 ) for the single shot at the hotel's Devil's Place whisky bar in July.
However, the origins of the spirit raised doubts soon after the purchase, when whisky industry experts found that the bottle's cork and label did not match those seen in newspaper articles.
The Waldhaus then sent a sample to Dunfermline-based specialists Rare Whisky 101 (RW101) for analysis.
Researchers from the University of Oxford carried out carbon dating tests which suggested a 95 per cent probability that the spirit was created between 1970 and 1972.
Waldhuas Am See manager Sandro Bernasconi said, "When it comes to selling our customers some of the world's rarest and oldest whiskies, we felt it was our duty to ensure that our stock is 100% authentic and the real deal.
"That's why we called in RW101. The result has been a big shock to the system and we are delighted to have repaid our customer in full as a gesture of goodwill."
Co-founder of RW101 David Robertson said, "The Waldhaus team have done exactly the right thing by trying to authenticate this whisky."
