MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Scotch whisky matured for 64 years sold at £ 25.200

The Glendiddich was distilled in 1937 and bottled in 2001

A Scotch whisky matured for more than six decades sold for 25,200 pounds ($37,245) at an Edinburgh auction Wednesday as collectors vied for rare malts.

The bottle is one of 61 produced by the Glenfiddich distillery and the whisky has matured for 64 years, host Bonhams said in its catalogue. It was bought by an unidentified purchaser over the telephone. Bidding started at 10,000 pounds.

The price, which includes the auctioneer’s fee, compares with a presale estimate of as much as 20,000 pounds at hammer prices -- and a world record of 29,400 pounds for a bottle of Scotch set in Glasgow in 2007.

“Prices have been fantastic,” Martin Green, the whisky specialist at Bonhams, said while setting up the auction. “Collecting seems to be reaching an all-time high. It’s the alternative investment angle people are looking at.”

The Scotch whisky industry has been weathering the financial crisis, Green said in an interview. Distillers meanwhile have been adding capacity to cater to demand in countries such as China and India.

Bonhasm in November sold the Dalmore Oculus, made from whisky malt vintages as much as 141 years old and stored in a crystal decanter, for £ 27.600 after pricing it in the same 15,000 to 20,000-pound range as the Glenfiddich.

The Glenfiddich sold Wednesday was distilled on July 17, 1937, and bottled on Oct. 24, 2001, according to the label.

The sale of 396 lots in total in Edinburgh may raise between 113,320 pounds and 144,050 pounds based on guide prices, London-based Bonhams said in an e-mail.