Distilled | A Single Collection Featuring Rare Macallan, Suntory & Karuizawa Single Cask Whisky 單一藏家蒸餾珍藏

W e continue with our 6^th Sotheby’s Distilled online Sale of 2020 in Hong Kong, offering our first ever whisky Single Collection in Asia, featuring Rare whiskies from Macallan, Suntory & Karuizawa Single Cask. Highlights include the Fine & Rare bottlings from Macallan, distilled from 1947 to 1977; an assortment of Suntory single and owner’s cask bottlings such as 1986 Yamazaki The Owner’s cask La Maison du Whisky 50^th Anniversary Bottling composing and the first ever single cask whisky bottled from Suntory, the 1960 Yamazaki The Century Aged 40 Years Cask no. ZD0550; over 30 bottles of Karuizawa single cask whiskies including the 1965 Karuizawa Monyou edition Aged 50 Years #6736 and 1981 Karuizawa #125 Sakura. Last but not the least, this collection also presents a highly sought after “Spades” set of 14 bottles from the Ichiro Malt Card Series.

蘇富比2020年第六場「點滴成金」網上拍賣會首度在香港誠獻單一藏家威士忌珍藏，欣呈罕有Macallan、三得利及輕井澤單桶威士忌。拍賣會精選Macallan在1947至1977年蒸餾的Fine & Rare系列；三得利單桶及私人選桶（Owner’s Cask）威士忌，例如山崎1986年The Owner’s Cask La Maison du Whisky 50^th Anniversary Bottling，以及三得利的單桶威士忌處女作——山崎1960年The Century 40年，桶號ZD0550；另有逾30瓶輕井澤單桶威士忌，包括輕井澤1965年Monyou Edition 50年、桶號#6736，及輕井澤1981年「櫻」、桶號125。同樣矚目的是當今收藏界難得一見的珍品——羽生伊知郎撲克牌系列的13瓶「黑桃」。

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Founded in the 1950s, Karuizawa was a distillery whose future was always uncertain, not least because it was located at the foot of the active volcano, Mount Asama, Nagano Prefecture in the very centre of Japan’s main island of Honshu (本州).

Karuizawa’s production continued throughout the 1960s and began to gain some popularity in the 1970s, however, similarly to Scotch, Japanese whisky went through a decline in the 1980s with a drop in sales across the country. It began to focus on single malt production from Karuizawa, however this may have been too little too late, and on 31 December 2000 Karuizawa Distillery was mothballed and closed its doors for the last time.

Mercian was absorbed by Kirin between 2006 and 2010, but there was no hope in sight for Karuizawa distillery’s return to production. Its remaining inventory of only 364 casks was sold to a company by the name of Number One Drinks, the oldest among them being Cask #5627, filled in 1960. When this whisky was released in 2013 at 52 years of age it was the oldest Japanese whisky ever to be bottled and the most expensive whisky ever to be sold when it retailed for 2 million yen, double that of the Yamazaki 50 year old which previously held both records.

Karuizawa Distillery was finally demolished in 2016 and so ended a legendary era in the history of Japanese Whisky.

輕井澤蒸餾所創辦於上世紀五十年代，酒廠坐落於日本本州長野縣的活火山——淺間山的山腳，由於火山隨時可能一觸即發，這樣的地理位置令它的命運難以預知，前路崎嶇難測。

輕井澤蒸餾所繼續在六十年代釀製威士忌，直至七十年代名氣漸長。然而跟蘇格蘭威士忌一樣，日本威士忌在八十年代經歷低潮，全國銷量下跌。其後，專注於輕井澤單一酒廠生產的麥芽威士忌，可惜革新舉措來得太少也太遲，2000年12月31日，輕井澤蒸餾所休業，最後一次向世界關上大門。

麒麟集團（Kirin）在2006至2010年間逐步將美露香收歸麾下，輕井澤蒸餾所僅餘的364桶威士忌亦售予一間名為「Number One Drinks」的公司，其中最古老的是1960年裝酒的第5627號桶。這桶52年威士忌在2013年推出，是酒齡最高的已裝瓶日本威士忌、也是當時最昂貴的威士忌，其零售價高達200萬日圓，以兩倍之差打破山崎50年所保持的上述兩項紀錄。

2016年，輕井澤蒸餾所最終不敵拆卸命運，日本威士忌史上的傳奇年代亦隨之落幕。

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