Capturing Christmas spirit at $1285 a nip

LONDON - At £500 ($1285) a nip, it is one of the world's most expensive tipples this Christmas.

For connoisseurs with the means, British drinks giant Diageo is selling a Johnnie Walker whisky blend at £14,000 ($35,962) a bottle to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Scotsman who created the world's best-selling whiskybrand.

The group, which distils one-third of the world's scotch, has selected Scotland's best whiskies, all more than 30 years old and some as old as 70, to create its 1805 anniversary pack - containing just one bottle - to be sold to the most discerning drinkers.

The world's largest alcoholic drinks company, which also makes Smirnoff vodka and Guinness beer, is selling just 200 bottles of the high-priced spirit to spice up interest in whisky in the run-up to Christmas.

One of the 200 bottles was sold at a recent auction in Shanghai for £14,000 and another was broken open by Diageo's master of blending, Jim Beveridge, who created the blend, at a briefing on whisky in London this week.

Beveridge said he used whiskies predominantly from Scottish distilleries that no longer existed to create a special scotch.

He said it had been a blender's dream to use the world's most precious whisky stocks.

- REUTERS