Karuizawa 52-Year "The Prototype" Sells for $625,000 at Sotheby's•

A one-of-a-kind bottle of Karuizawa 1960 Cask #5627, known as “The Prototype,” sold for $625,000 at Sotheby’s Whisky & Whiskey auction. It led the Nightcap series at the Breuer, which totaled $14.3 million. It is one of the most valuable bottles of Japanese whisky ever sold at auction. Its pre-sale estimate was $400,000–600,000.

Cask #5627 was distilled on Feb. 1, 1960, and was the oldest cask in Karuizawa’s inventory. The distillery stopped producing at the end of 2000 and was later demolished. The cask yielded only 41 commercial bottles of the 1960 vintage, which at release was the oldest Japanese whisky ever bottled.

Before the commercial bottling, only two bottles were drawn and hand-filled straight from the cask. This one was filled on Dec. 20, 2012, by Osami Uchibori, Karuizawa’s final Master Distiller, who had worked there since 1960. It came with a handwritten certificate signed by Uchibori. It was bottled at 58.3% ABV, compared with 51.8% for the commercial release.

“This is one of those bottles that I have been trying for years to hunt down. It’s a career highlight for me just to come into contact with it. Karuizawa 1960 Cask #5627 represents the very pinnacle of Japanese whisky, and this particular bottle is the rarest example of what this legendary distillery ever produced. Its age, extraordinary scarcity and historical significance come together to make this the most important Japanese whisky bottle to come to market in recent years. As one of only two bottles ever hand-bottled directly from Karuizawa’s oldest cask, this represents a key moment that would change the face of Japanese whisky collecting forever.” – Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s Global Head of Spirits