© Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette $38,000 scotch bottle for sale at rural Quebec duty-free shop
One of the rarest bottles of scotch whisky on the market is the Balvenie 50 ? and the only bottle for sale in Canada is in a rural Quebec town on the border with New York.
But if you are in the market to spend US$38,000 on Bottle No. 89 from a 1963 vintage of the Balvenie, you will need to make a trip to the U.S.-Canada border and the IGL Duty Free shop at the Lacolle border crossing.
?We have a lot of scotch connoisseurs who stop here,? said Pierre Guay of his store, which benefits from an ideal location between Montreal and New York City, and being near other major U.S. markets. The store is one of three duty-free shops that Guay runs as president of Importations Guay Limited, a family business. © Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette
?We decided to acquire this bottle because we wanted a prestige item in our store,? he said, noting that part of its value is that ?it makes people talk.?
Guay says the most expensive scotch he ever sold went for about $4,725 ? that?s in Canadian dollars ? for a Macallan M. The shop sold two bottles of it recently. After the Balvenie 50, the most expensive bottle in the shop is a Glenfiddich 40, which sells for $5,500.
The number 40 or 50 following the name of the scotch indicates how long it has been aged.
?We expect, some day, to sell (the Balvenie 50) to an American, because I think that is where our market is ? in...