But, says Jim Meehan-even he hasn't gotten the chance to taste the whisky yet-you're not just paying for the whisky itself, but a chance to meet some of the most influential minds in the world of whisk(e)y. Multnomah Whisk(e)y Library will donate a portion of ticket sales-a total of $10,000-to the Portland Japanese Garden.Ī $7,000 one-ounce pour is certainly a better deal than trying to find one of these rare bottles, which contains just a little over 25 ounces, at auction. There are also a number of companion tickets available for $500 for those who want to participate in the events but don’t need a whole pour of whisky for themselves. So far, the Whisk(e)y Library has sold just two during its members-only presale. There are only 21 tickets remaining for the event, which are available online to the public starting at 1 p.m. The next day’s events include a one-ounce pour of the Yamazaki 55, followed by a five-course dinner. The event will wrap up with other Yamazaki pours like the Yamazaki 12 and 18, craft cocktails from Meehan, and a tasting menu. It includes a guided tour at the Portland Japanese Garden followed by talks from Suntory’s master blender Shinji Fukuyo, world-renowned spirits writer Dave Broom, and Portland cocktail virtuoso Jim Meehan. The Whisk(e)y Library is turning the tasting, which was delayed for several years due to the pandemic, into a full-blown two-day event from July 21-22. And there it was-in a cardboard box, with another box inside of it, a really gorgeous box that held the bottle.” “It comes shipped with a bunch of other stuff, and it goes to the warehouse as all liquor does in Oregon, and then it goes to a store and we pick it up. But when MWL staff picked up the bottle of Yamazaki 55, Sickman was surprised at the lack of fanfare. The oldest whiskies on its massive, pages-long Whisk(e)y Bible menu right now are around 30 to 40 years old. To put things in perspective, the second-most expensive pour on Multnomah Whisk(e)y Library’s menu is the Macallan M, which costs $725 for a 1.5-ounce pour. “It came with a really steep price tag, but the bottle represents a level of craftsmanship and the art and distillation, and the rarity of it-we couldn’t really pass it up." They really want people to drink it,” says Lani Sickman, Multnomah Whisk(e)y Library’s general manager. "Suntory, like most distilleries, doesn’t want it to just derive value from being passed around like art. The Multnomah Whisk(e)y Library was invited-invited!-by The House of Suntory to purchase a bottle of the whisky, one of just a few bottles on the West Coast, at the relatively modest list price of $60,000. Will the event take off in Portland, though? Will people travel to Portland just to try this rare whisky? Adding up all these factors, Portland makes a lot of sense as a destination for a bottle of Yamazaki 55. And Downtown Portland's Multnomah Whisk(e)y Library, with its Ivy League-library vibes and the biggest selection of whisk(e)ys in all of Oregon neatly arranged along its wall-length shelves, is one of the few spirits-obsessed clubs of its kind in the country. Our city has longstanding cultural connections with Japan. That said, Portland is famously obsessed with whisk(e)y. You might expect to see a $7,000 whisky tasting in a New York country club or a swanky bar in Los Angeles. In many ways, it’s a needlessly extravagant event that doesn’t quite seem to add up in humble little Portland. In June 2022, a bottle sold on Sotheby’s for $600,000, even higher than the auction house’s estimate of $400,000-$500,000. It’s by some measures the oldest Japanese whisky ever released, and when it launched in June 2020 by lottery to Japanese residents only, the suggested retail price was 3 million yen, or $27,500. The rare whisky in question, The House of Suntory’s Yamazaki 55, is a special blend of Japanese single malt whiskys distilled in 19. This is no ordinary whisky, of course-there are only 100 bottles in the whole world, and only 20 of those are in the United States. The going price for a tasting ticket: $7,000, which gets you a one-ounce pour of whisky in a Pinot Noir glass. But how much would you pay to be one of just two dozen people in Portland to taste a 60-year-old rare Japanese whisky? You’ve heard of $150 coffee-this February, Proud Mary’s Portland location sold a limited run of just 10 cups of an award-winning Gesha coffee from Panama. Image: Courtesy Multnomah Whiskey Library/Jordan Hughes
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