Singapore's only Black Bowmore DB5 1964 bottle is up for auction

You could pay US$450,000 (S$609,000) for Bored Ape #79 (that’s the amount rapper Eminem reportedly forked out for this NFT digital art). Or you could pay less than 20 per cent of that and bid for the Black Bowmore DB5 1964. Personally, I’ll go for the latter.

The year is significant to both Aston Martin and Bowmore. For the former, 1964 marked the first time James Bond drove an Aston Martin on screen. The DB5 appeared in Goldfinger and kick-started the spy’s long relationship with the automaker.

As for Bowmore, the year’s significance would only manifest itself later in the century when the distiller found several casks maturing in its vaults, tasted them and realised their brilliance. This liquid would be named Black Bowmore and would set enviable records in the future.

Bowmore ambassador and whisky veteran Matthew Fergusson-Stewart recalls the first edition of the Black Bowmore released in 1993. It retailed at £70, a price “some thought was insane”. Five years ago, in 2017, that first edition went under the hammer for US$14,850.

Another Black Bowmore from a later release fetched £54,450 (S$100k) at a Sotheby’s auction in 2019, highlighting the collectible nature of the liquid.

The DB5 edition of the Black Bowmore is expected to be just as popular, especially since the handcrafted bottle features a genuine piston from the car wrapped around the bottom. Only one bottle has been allocated for sale in Singapore and you can bid for it online at the Lotte Duty Free Changi Airport Store.

The silent auction runs from today to the end of the month on Jan 30.

This article was first published in The Peak.