A rare, 55-year-old bottle of Glenfiddich single malt whisky has been auctioned for approximately `35 lakh (£42,000). The money will help build a school for physically and mentally disadvantaged children in Uttarakhand.
The bottle was sold to the highest bidder, World Duty Free Group (WDFG).
The minimum price for the bottle at the auction, conducted here this week, was £40,000.
The money raised has been handed over to the charity organisation Lotus Flower Trust, which has been working on several projects in India for over 20 years, including in Rajasthan, Assam, Ladakh and Uttarakhand.
The rare single malt was named after Janet Sheed Roberts, the grand-daughter of William Grant, who founded the Glenfiddich distillery.
She celebrated her 110th birthday in August 2011, but died on April 6 this year. A delighted John Hunt, founder of the Lotus Flower Trust, said: “We at the Lotus Flower Trust are overwhelmed by the generosity that has been shown us. All we need to do now is raise the funds to build a home to match the school for these deprived but lovely little children”.
He added: “It is such a pleasure to work in India. In the last three years we have completed eight projects. We only raise funds to construct school buildings and homes, not to run the schools or hire teachers”.
The rare whisky comes in a hand-blown glass bottle with a bottle stopper pressed with Roberts’s initials, encased in a leather box inspired by her leather travelling trunk, with a deer horn toggle and lined with silk.