Rare Balvenie re-launched in Canada after theft

A bottle of 50-year-old The Balvenie whisky worth CAD$45,000 (£21,800) is set to go on sale at a shop in Vancouver, Canada, one year after the same expression was stolen from a Montreal outlet.

A bottle of The Balvenie Fifty is to go on sale at a store in Canada next week

Bottle number 68 of The Balvenie Fifty will go on sale at the BC Liquor Store, Cambie Store location in Vancouver, British Columbia on 12 January.

It is one of only 131 such bottles released this year and is the only bottle available in Canada. The Balvenie Fifty first launched in 2012 to celebrate the 50^th birthday of the brand’s malt master, David Stewart.

The listing comes almost exactly one year after an armed thief broke into a Montreal store and pilfered about CND$100,000 worth of alcohol, including a bottle of The Balvenie Fifty.

The thief smashed a barred window to reach the Balvenie release and also took three other bottles.

Hand-filled at The Balvenie distillery into hand-blown glass, The Balvenie Fifty is a single malt comprising liquid first laid down on in European oak hogshead casks in 1963.