News ... Glenfiddich 50 years old up for auction

Glenfiddich released their 50 years old single malt earlier this year to much publicity and now they have announced that a bottle is going up for auction next week. This is only the second time in the distillery's 123 year history that a 50 years old whisky has been released!

Glenfiddich is the most famous whisky distillery and single malt brand in the world. The distillery is located in the Glen Fiddich, a valley on the outskirts of the town of Dufftown in the heart of the Speyside whisky region of Scotland. The name means 'valley of the deer' in Gaelic and it was founded in 1886 by William Grant and his family. The Grant family maintain ownership today and the success of their whiskies have made Glenfiddich the biggest distillery in Scotland. The annual production is a massive 10 million litres with 29 stills and 45 maturation warehouses, its own cooperage and bottling plant (very few distilleries have all of these facilities remaining on the same site).

The charity auction of the Glenfiddich 50 years old will be conducted by Christie's, the famous auction house, on Monday 7 December. The charity in question is Friend's of Scotland, which was started by Sir Sean Connery and aids Scottish causes in the USA. Part of the deal is that he is going to write a personal letter of congratulation to the winning bidder. The event will take place in New York, with two other simultaneous events joining in from Los Angeles and Miami, and will be hosted by the USA Glenfiddich ambassadors. The whisky is presented in a hand blown, specially designed glass bottle and is individually numbered (the bottle for auction in number 3). It is presented in a hand stitched leather case. The whisky is a marriage of two casks that have been maturing in Glenfiddich's warehouses since 1959 and they were carefully selected and vatted by Scotland's oldest serving Master Blender, David Stewart.

As the Glenfiddich 50 years old is an extremely rare and prestigious whisky, (and it costs a whopping £10,000 a bottle!), we will have to use Glenfiddich's own tasting notes to convey the characteristics - "The nose is beautifully harmonious with an uplifting, vibrant and complex aroma. The taste is initially sweet with a zesty orange marmalade and vanilla toffee, which then cascades through a wonderful series of layers: aromatic herbs, floral and soft fruits, silky oak tannin and hints of gentle smoke. The finish is exceptionally long with a touch of dry oak and the merest trace of peat."