Is this the world's oldest bottle of whisky?

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Worth a dram? This rare Victorian Scotch could set you back £300 a shot

A bottle of whisky - believed to be the oldest in the world - is to be sold at auction next month.

The rare Victorian Scotch is thought to be over 150 years old and is expected to fetch up to £10,000 - £300 a shot - at Bonhams Sale of Fine Wine, Port and Spirits in London.

The bottle's label reads "Glenavon Special Liqueur Whisky Bottled by the Distillers".

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Research by the auctioneers shows Glenavon closed down in the 1850s, meaning that if it was bottled by the distillers it will be one of the oldest bottles of whisky ever to be auctioned.

The bottle has been put up for sale by a woman from County Armagh in Northern Ireland, whose family has had it for generations.

Bonhams is maintaining client confidentiality, but said the woman remembers the bottle being in her grandmother's home in the 1920s.

The bottle is an unusual size, slightly smaller than the familiar 75cl, and made from olive-green glass. The liquid appears to be pale gold and the level is surprisingly high for such an old bottle - almost to the neck - said Bonhams.

The Glenavon Distillery was situated at Ballindalloch in Spayside where the River Avon meets the River Spay. It was recorded as operating in 1851 and licensed to a John G Smith in 1852.

John Gordon Smith was the son of George Smith, founder of the nearby Glenlivet Distillery, and he joined his father in the business in 1846, helping him establish a small distillery at Delnabo in 1849.

Charles MacLean, Bonhams' consultant and world authority on whisky, has been researching the origins of the elderly bottle.

He said: "It has been suggested that Delnabo and Glenavon have been one and the same. What is certain is that the Smiths closed Delnabo in 1858 and in the following year they consolidated all their distilleries - including Glenavon/Delnabo - at Minmore, the site of the present Glenlivet Distillery."

Mr MacLean added: "Since the label reads 'Glenavon' and 'Bottled by the Distillers' it implies that it was bottled before the move to Minmore."

Northern Ireland boasts the oldest licensed distillery in the world - Bushmills Irish Whiskey has been produced in the Co Antrim village since the licence was granted in 1608.

If the seller achieves the £10,000 price at the auction she could fill her home with 557 bottles of Bushmills Original Irish Whiskey.

 

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