This time of year is usually when London's bankers start dreaming of what to spend their bonuses on. Were there still any bankers possessing the wherewithal to spend $25,000 in a single evening, our friends at Spungle have sourced quite the splurge. The Ultimate Glenrothes Experience is a one-of-a-kind experience for 10 people to indulge in Glenrothes vintage single malts. The tasting takes place in the well-appointed cellars of Berry Brothers & Rudd's St. James Street location and is led by Ronnie Cox, recently-named Whiskey Ambassador for Scotland for 2008 and Master of the Keepers of the Quaich. The vintages will be paired with dishes prepared by Berry Brothers & Rudd Head Chef, Stewart Turner. Vintages included are a trip through time in distilled form including The Glenrothes 1966 Single Cask #1438, The Glenrothes 1979 Vintage (Bottled 1994) and The Glenrothes 1985 Vintage (Bottled 1997). With dinner, guests will also enjoy some exceptional wines from the Berry family reserves held under lock and key in their private cellars. The Ultimate Glenrothes Experience is limited to 10 individuals and the inclusive cost is $25,000. Booking can require as much as a year's notice, so book now and who knows, you might have the money by then. Those interested can contact Bridget DiMartino at 212-477-8090 or e-mail her at bridget (at) tbtpr.com.

Scottish whiskeymaking and Scottish photography combine with the launch of The Macallan Masters of Photography Rankin Edition. Rankin is a famed Scottish photographer and he was chosen to Easter Elchies House, the "spiritual home of The Macallan." He spent a summer interpreting the The Macallan Estate through his camera lens. The result is 1,000 unique bottles of The Macallan Fine Oak 30 year old single malt whisky each bearing an original Rankin image, captured on Polaroid. Since Polaroid was discontinued this year,The Masters of Photography represents the end of an era. The black-and-white pictures include artistic studies of the lovely Tuuli, Rankin's muse, shown on this bottle, as well as pictures of Easter Elchies House, shots of craftspeople at the distillery, and still life images of the surrounding flora and fauna at the estate. Each bottle comes in a black leather box lined with velvet and containing an original Rankin Polaroid. Each bottle will have an individually printed label which matches the specific Polaroid contained within the box and a booklet of authenticity signed by Rankin. Each bottle sells for around $1,300.

[via Brand Republic]

I've been hearing lots of buzz lately about the Glemorangie Signet, people really want to get their hands on this bottle. The whisky is causing a stir for several reasons, the first that it is not touting the age on the bottle and the second that the whisky uses a chocolate malt mixed in with barley to create the mash. The word being used to describe it is "voluptuous" and both a Businessweek article and Bill Dowd seem to heartily concur while John Hansell of Malt Advocate seems a bit more reserved although he does declare it to be a fun whisky. It has notes of sherry, maple, marmalade, tobacco and yes, chocolate.

The age of whiskies in Signet hasn't been revealed but it's likely a younger concoction and a smart move to make one at a time when Scotland is feeling the pinch of a shortage of older whiskies ready to tap. The Signet is priced like an older whisky, $185 a bottle but so far the tasters seem to think its worth it. It should start showing up in stores this month.

An article in the Financial Times on whisky recently discussed the fact that whisky distiller might just be a pretty good occupation to have in these tough economic times. While some whiskies are seen as affordable luxury, this one might be stretching it. The latest edition of The Dalmore is a 50-year old vintage malt that is being released as a limited edition. The blend includes whisky first distilled 140 years ago. A total of 191 hand-blown, Portuguese crystal decanters will be available from luxury retailers and will sell for around £700 for a 10cl bottle (an additional 50 will be sold through travel retail outlets). The drink is said to have tastes of Old English marmalade and fruitcake with an aftertaste of crushed almonds and cinnamon.

[via Just Drinks]

They say that when blending whisky it's all about the sniffer. Small wonder then that a new book by master whiskey blender Richard Patterson and Gavin D Smith features Patterson on the cover with his nose headed glassward and goes by the title "Goodness Nose." Cute, right? What's even cuter, although perhaps veering into the strange is that a six-foot high nose, based on Patterson's more modest proboscis has been spotted around Edinburgh as part the promotion for the book. The Edinburgh News reports that the nose has been spotted in the city's Multrees Walk, the Royal Mile and Princes Street Gardens. I'm hoping pictures surface soon, this I've got to see.

The last couple of months have seen the debut of some very expensive whiskies. Auchentoshan Distillery has come out with a premium limited-edition 42 year-old that like the recent Balevenie offering, is a travel exclusive. The whisky has been resting in American oak barrels at the lowland distillery warehouse near Glasgow for 42 years. it has a golden color with scents of honey, vanilla and coconut. There are 123 bottles of the rare vintage that have been produced and each is individually hand numbered. The bottles will be sold at World of Whiskies stores at London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London Stansted, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports starting on October 29. It retails for £2,000 (around $3,300).

[via The Moodie Report]

Somewhere between whisky and beer there is Fuller's Brewer's Reserve. The whisky-beer hybrid was launched by the London pub and brewer and is the result years of effort by head brewer John Keeling to create a beer with some of the characteristics of a single malt. The beer is aged more than 500 days in 30-year-old scotch whisky casks. Brewer's Reserve is available in 25,000 individually numbered bottles and presentation box. The company recently tangled with British Customs over whether the brew was a beer or a spirit for duty purposes. It was decided that Brewer's Reserve will be charged at the beer rate.

To celebrate its 150th anniversary, Canadian Club has released a special limited edition 30 Year Reserve whisky, that boasts a "luscious oak character and a velvety texture with unsurpassed natural smoothness."

Having sampled it, we second that description. The company is releasing 3,000 bottles at $200 apiece, the first Canadian distiller to offer a product of this age and refinement.

Canadian Club obviously sounds very Canadian, but it actually got its start in Detroit, founded by grocer-turned-distiller Hiram Walker, who dubbed his whisky Walker's Club. When Prohibition reared its ugly head, Walker relocated his operation across the Detroit River to Ontario, where he soon established his own community, Walkerville.

Canadian Club has recently experienced something of resurgence thanks to the hit show Mad Men, wherein it's everyone's favorite character Don Draper's drink of choice.

The bottle of Glencadam single malt shown above has an interesting history. It hidden behind a trap door during the Prohibition era and then found in the 1950s during renovations of a home in Washington state. It was most recently in Sweden and will end up in Edinburgh on November 12 when it is auctioned off by Bonhams during their whisky sale. The bottle of Old Pot Still Scotch Viking (Glencadam) is estimated to sell for £3000 and £5000. Martin Green, Bonhams' Whisky Consultant, describes the bottle of Old Pot Still Scotch Viking (Glencadam) as "one of the rarest early 20th century malt whiskies to appear at auction in recent years." This is Bonhams first sale dedicated to just whisky and is one of four to be held in Edinburgh each year. Bonhams will hold four Whisky Sales per year in Edinburgh, beginning in November 2008. Other whiskies to be sold in the sale include a bottle of Balvenie 1937 (estimate £3,000-5,000), Macallan Select Reserve 1948 (estimate £2,000-2,500) and a 50-year-old bottle of Springbank (estimate £2,000-2,500).

[via The Scotsman]

UPDATE: The bottle sold for £3240.

Brazilian collector, Claive Vidiz has brought the world's largest collection of whiskies back to Scotland. The collection numbers 3,384 bottles, and took Mr. Vidiz over 35 years to assemble. Now the collection has been bought spirits maker Diageo which has in turn loaned the collection to the Scotch Whisky Experience on the Royal Mile next year. The bottles are currently stored in a high security location in Scotland, after making the 6,500 mile journey from Sao Paulo on a container ship. At the Scotch Whisky Experience, a museum, shop and restaurant next to Edinburgh castle, the whiskies will be displayed in a custom made vault. BBC News quotes Mr. Vadiz as being very happy that his entire collection has found a home without having to be split up.

Wine lovers have their pick of bottle of the month clubs but for whisky lovers, there is The Director's Cut for members of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in England. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is a membership group which bottles only single casks from a range of 125 malt whisky distilleries. Each month, Society's Directors, Paul Miles, Kai Ivalo and Anne Griffiths, get together to personally hand-pick a bottle from a selection of the very best single cask, single malt whisky. The Society bottles around 20 different single casks each month so this alleviates the decision process and can expose subscribers to whiskies they have never even heard of or thought of trying. Members tell the Society the amount they wish to spend per bottle, either £50 or £75 and after 12 months members will receive an extra bottle as a thank you.

Maker's Mark, the top shelf Kentucky bourbon that traces its roots all the way back to 1780, just celebrated September's demarcation as National Bourbon Heritage Month during the 17th Annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival down South. The storied whisky maker isn't resting on its laurels however; they also just kicked off an admirable new campaign to encourage people to vote in the upcoming elections with a 16-city cross country bus tour and two new special limited edition bottlings featuring red, white and blue wax seals.

The story of Maker's, which is handmade in small quantities using water from a spring-fed lake and a mash consisting of corn, barley and winter wheat, goes back to 1870 when third generation Scottish-Irish immigrant Robert Samuels arrived in Kentucky. A farmer by trade, Samuels began making whisky for himself and a few friends. His grandson T.W. erected the family's first "commercial" distillery at Samuels Depot, the family farm, in 1840.

Fast-forward 100 years and the story takes an unexpected turn. T.W.'s great-great-grandson Bill Samuels Sr. was not overly fond of the "secret" family recipe - so he literally burnt it and sold off the distillery, which had become overly commercial. He then spent several years experimenting with different grains until he developed a entirely new bourbon recipe based on locally grown maize (corn), malted barley and soft, red, gentle winter wheat - as opposed to the traditional and harsher grain, rye.

The opportunities to spend a lot on whisky just keep coming. For this one though, you'll have to fly to Hong Kong. The Balvenie Distillery has released 151 bottles from a single cask of The Balvenie, cask number 10378 from 1964, to be sold exclusively in Hong Kong International Airport. The whisky comes in a cherry wood box and each bottle is individually hand numbered. It was bottled exclusively for duty free retailer Sky Connection and sells for HK$108,000 ($14,200 U.S.) a bottle.

I've written a lot about ultra-pricey Scotch over the years but haven't had a chance to taste too much of it myself. Laura Baddish of The Baddish Group took pity on me, arranging a meeting with James Espey who let me sample The Last Drop. The slogan of The Last Drop is "if you only drink only one more glass of whisky..." and indeed, were you choosing a fitting accompaniment for your last meal, this would be the one to sip slowly as you contemplated your doom.

The Last Drop is a company founded by three old hands in the liquor business who have decided to bottle one by one, a collection of fabulous old casks from remote cellars scattered all over Scotland. Between them, Tom Jago, James Espey, and Peter Fleck have over 120 years in the Scotch industry. Meeting Espey was a trip through liquor history as he told me several interesting stories including one involving the invention of Bailey's Irish Cream. When they were first working on the mix of cream and whisky they didn't emulsify it at first. The result was a bottleneck of solid fat at the top of the bottle which made for a rather awkward moment when debuting the new concoction. The formula was fixed and the brand became very successful. Espey, Jago and Fleck were also responsible for developing Malibu rum, another brand with instant name recognition.

The trio aren't looking for that sort of popularity with this offering. The Last Drop is a passion project for these seasoned pros. Their first offering is a bottling of 1,347 bottles of whisky distilled in 1960. When it reached 12 years it was blended and put back into Sherry casks where it stayed for 36 years, evaporating slowly until less than a third of the volume remained. It has been bottled straight from the casks with no chilling, filtering or other additions.

We've seen the Black Bowmore, now Scotch distiller Bowmore has launched the second of three limited edition whiskies, the White Bowmore. There are 732 bottles of the White Bowmore, which is a 43-year-old single malt. The whisky has been maturing in six bourbon casks since 1964. It will sell for $4,400 a bottle with just 40 bottles released to the U.S.

John Hansell of the Malt Advocate tried it back in July and rated it a 94 saying that it has notes of "bright fruit: peach, tangerine, mango, ripe melon, and pineapple" as well as softer sweet notes and a balance of smoke and oak.