Chinese flier buys rare Japanese whiskey bottle for Rs 4 crore from Instanbul airport

Yamazaki 55 Year Old is the the oldest single malt whiskey in the history of the House of Suntory. (Image credit: Suntory Whisky)

A rare bottle of single malt Japanese whiskey on offer at a duty free store in Istanbul airport has been sold for an incredible €488,000 which is equivalent to Rs 4.14 crore.

Described as an extremely limited Yamazaki 55 Year Old whiskey, it had been on sale at one of Unifree Duty Free’s outlets at the airport since December 2021, reports Airport World, the magazine of Airports Council International.

Due to the exceptionally limited nature of the liquor, customers were invited to place their bids on it. Eight interested customers made a valid offer and ultimately, a customer from China won the bid.

Ali Şenher, CEO of Unifree Duty Free, said, “We are thrilled that this record-breaking sale has taken place at our store."

“It provides further evidence that special products can help to achieve amazing results for airport retail and that Istanbul Airport is the perfect site to offer rarities like the Yamazaki 55 Year Old to a particularly discerning international clientele.”

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It is the oldest single malt whisky in the history of the House of Suntory. It is a blend of three exceptional single malts from the 1960s, featuring components distilled under the supervision of Suntory’s founder Shinjiro Torii.

Describing the liquor, Shinji Fukuyo, one of Suntory's chief blenders says in their website, "Very old Scotch Whiskies gave me this impression  of them being perfect Greek sculptures with  beautiful toned beauty. Instantly impressive as a piece of art. But the Yamazaki 55 is more like  an old Buddhist statue. Calm and mysterious.  It takes time to take in its inner beauty with the smell of Japanese incense and stripped old wood,  like the Toshodaiji Temple in Nara. ’’

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After releasing 100 bottles in 2020 in Japan through a lottery system, Suntory has expanded on the release in 2021 by offering a very limited batch of another 100 bottles to the rest of the world, with a number allocated to key Travel Retail partners, including Gebr Heinemann, Unifree’s joint venture partner at the Turkish gateway.