Historic Japanese whiskies head to auction

Asia’s largest sale of Japanese whisky is set to take place next week, when one of the world’s oldest Japanese single malts will go under the hammer.

A rare bottle of Yamazaki 50 Year Old – the world’s oldest Japanese single malt – will feature in Asia’s largest Japanese whisky auction

More than 200 lots of rare Japanese whiskies will be available at Bonhams Hong Kong’s Rare Single Malt Whisky Auction on 15th August 2014.

Leading the sale will be collections from the mothballed Karuizawa and Hanyu distilleries that ceased production in 2001 and 2000 respectively.

From the Karuizawa distillery will be 170 bottles of whisky distilled between 1981 and 1999; the Karuizawa Geisha series; Karuizawa vertical years ranging from year 1969 to 1995; the Karuizawa black and white series and the extremely rare Karuizawa 1965 21-year-old in a crystal decanter.

Bonhams will also offer what it claims is the most comprehensive collection of Hanyu Ichiro’s Playing Cards whisky in the auction history of Hong Kong.

A “full deck” collection of the whisky can rarely be found on the market, but Bonhams will offer the Six Full House with Six of Hearts, Six of Diamonds, Six of Spades, Five of Hearts and Five of Diamonds, and a set of Royal Flush with Ace of Clubs, Two of Clubs, Three of Clubs, Four of Clubs and Five of Clubs.

The auction will also offer a bottle of Yamazaki 50 Year Old – said to be the world’s oldest and rarest bottle of Japanese single malt whisky, of which only 150 bottles were released worldwide.

An additional 64 lots of Scotch whisky will also feature, including The Macallan 55 Year Old in a Lalique crystal decanter, as well as The Macallan 1948 and 1951.