Durban - If you are still looking for a Christmas gift for the person who has everything, consider whisky.
For the kind of money that would buy a modest suburban house - R729 999 - retailer Norman Goodfellows is offering a bottle of 50-year-old The Balvenie. Put another way, that's about R24 300 for a tot .
Or for those whose budgets don't run so rich, try Glenfiddich, just as old and in a fine leather case, which is a snip at R650 000.
Put another way, that's about R24 300 for a tot of The Balvenie.
But you had better be quick.
Commercial director of Norman Goodfellows, Jason McEvoy, said the company only has one bottle each of the two rare whiskys.
Perhaps understandably, McEvoy was not in a position to offer the Daily News a dram of their top dop, so we can only give readers a description from The Balvenie's own website.
The single malt, it says, has been matured in a European oak sherry hogshead cask, which is rarely used today, and has a taste that is plum with "dark fruits, a spicy outburst of ground ginger and cinnamon".
On the nose one can smell oak, sweet raisins and subtle gentle spices, the makers also promise.
This, to translate, is no middling moonshine fresh from the cane fields.
It also comes in a hand-blown bottle, into which it was poured in 2014 after spending half a century in the cask.
The bottle is packaged in a neat wood and brass case.
Worldwide, only 139 bottles are available.
The makers of the Glenfiddich have not been slacking either in the packaging department.
The hand-stitched leather case has a hand-woven silk lining.
Inside, the lucky few who get to sample it will experience an initial very sweet taste with a zest of orange marmalade and vanilla toffee, according to the makers.
The layers of taste then cascade, "through a wonderful series of layers: aromatic herbs, floral and soft fruits, silky oak tannin and hints of gentle smoke".
So who do they think will buy the whisky?
McEvoy suggested people who are extremely passionate about whisky and collectors with investment in mind. "People who have too much money," he mused.
He also pointed out it would be difficult for the uneducated palate to fully appreciate a truly fine whisky, but helpfully, the more one drank, the more one would come to understand its subtle nuances.
Daily News