Liquor aficionados who don’t mind spending $3,200 on a bottle of Macallan single-malt Scotch whisky will have the opportunity to do so today when select B.C. Liquor Stores unveil their 2020 Premium Spirit Release offerings to customers.
Participating locations will open 90 minutes early to accommodate demand for the annual event, which offers sought-after whiskies, gins, tequilas and other libations from around the world in very limited quantities.
Provincial liquor stores on Foul Bay Road at Fort Street in Victoria, on Jacklin Road in Langford and in Broadmead are among those participating this weekend. Locations in Parksville and on Estevan Road in Nanaimo are also involved.
“What this shows is that higher-end, really sophisticated product will sell in the province with ease — even during a pandemic,” said Iain Hooey, co-founder of the annual Victoria Whisky Festival, set for Jan. 13-16 at the Hotel Grand Pacific.
“People are spending their ‘fun’ money on spirits, because they weren’t taking holidays. Their disposable income is going toward more exotic purchases.”
The breadth and depth of the catalogue — not to mention the prices — are up from previous years. About 175 individual products are being released throughout the province, but only a certain percentage are available at each store.
The provincial liquor store on Foul Bay will have three bottles of the aforementioned Macallan Sherry Oak from Scotland, which has been aged for 25 years.
The bottle is among a bevy of whiskies, rum, cognacs and bourbons that go on sale today, though budget-minded buyers need not rush into one of the participating stores.
The majority of offerings in the Premium Spirit Release are priced between $90 and $180, and many are in no danger of selling out immediately.
Given its rarity, the big-ticket Macallan bottle is expected to drive traffic to the Foul Bay Road location for the 8 a.m. opening, according to one of the store’s product consultants, Marissa Lingwood.
“Our lineups start at 2 or 3 a.m., usually,” Lingwood said. “We are a whisky capital here in Victoria. A lot of keeners come very early.”
Fifty-three of the high-end bottles were pre-released by the province and sold in advance through an online lottery. The Dalmore Decades No. 4 Collection, Set 19 — very desirable, as it spans four decades — will be sold for $200,000 through the liquor store on Cambie Street in Vancouver. It is one of just 25 sets available worldwide, and one of only two collections of The Dalmore Decades being offered in North America.
That will likely be sold to an overseas buyer. A lot of six Dalmore Decades whiskies sold at auction this year for $1.1 million US — the most valuable whisky lot ever sold in Asia.
But don’t count out someone from B.C. getting into the mix, Hooey said. “British Columbia is the second-largest purchaser of liquor in the world.”
