Whisky lovers expected to bid up to £150k to savour rare island malt

But even the most dedicated connoisseur might think twice about buying a dram of what is tipped to be the UK’s most expensive bottle of whisky.

A luxury bottle of rare whisky lovingly distilled over 54 years is going under the hammer in a city auction house next week with an estimated price tag of up to £150,000.

The cost of one nip would pay for a ticket on a luxury cruise liner – the bottle would buy you a house.

The Bowmore 1957, being sold at Bonhams on Queen Street, is tipped to break UK records as the most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold at auction – and experts believe it may even best the current world record.

At £3500 per dram, the exclusive whisky is beyond the finances of most 
collectors, but it is thought that there will be global interest in its sale from buyers as far afield as Europe, the Far East and the US.

A bottle of 64-year-old Macallan in Lalique glassware, sold at Sotheby’s in New York, holds the Guinness World Record for the dearest whisky ever sold at auction, fetching a staggering £291,125 in 2010.

Auctioneers at Bonhams predict that the unique bottle “has the potential” to eclipse the current record if “two people want it badly enough”.

The Bowmore bottle, of which there are only 12 in the world, contains the oldest whisky the firm has ever produced, and also lays claim to being the oldest Islay single malt.

Andrew Rankin, Morrison Bowmore’s chief blender, said: “Bowmore 1957 has withstood the test of time astoundingly well and is nothing short of brilliance in a glass.”