A complete 54-bottle set of Hanyu Ichiro's Malt Card series has sold for $489,993 at Bonhams' whisky auction in Hong Kong.
It beat an estimate of $309,477 by 58.3%.
 The Hanyu Ichiro distillery closed down in the early 2000s |
The series was created after the Hanyu distillery closed down in the early 2000s. Around 400 malts of varying ages and qualities were bottled. Today they are highly sought-after collectors' items and full sets are exceedingly rare.
Only three collectors around the world are thought to own a full set.
The growth in demand for whisky in the east, and China in particular, has grown exponentially in recent years.
Daniel Lam, Bonhams Hong Kong's wine and whisky specialist, explained: "In just a few years, whisky has become the choice of spirit for many buyers in the region - a development that we hadn't anticipated.
"As the number of whisky collectors in the region increase, we believe that whiskies of tip-top quality, or those which have long ceased production, are in shortage.
"Under such circumstances, auction houses are reliable source for collectors to get their hands on precious drams at reasonable prices."
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