Whisky barrel bought for £130 goes on sale at £270k

A whisky barrel purchased for £130 is to go on sale for £270,000.

Surrey pensioner Angus Kerr said he had bought the Glenrothes single malt in 1971 as an investment, hoping it would help pay for his children's school fees.

He said it was now worth an "unbelievable" sum, as the barrel was the oldest of its kind known to be in existence.

"I don't drink scotch," Kerr said. "If I did, I would be looking around for something that was £18, no more. That's my sort of level."

Kerr, a former commodities trader, said he had made the purchase after hearing about a company selling barrels of new-fill whisky.

"I thought at least I can go for a swim in it if it all goes belly up," he told BBC Radio Surrey.

Kerr said he had hoped to sell the barrel five years later for a profit, but the company went bust and he lost contact with them.

"I just threw my hands in the air and thought, 'OK, that was silly'," he added.

However, a few years later, the 81-year-old was contacted out of the blue by a Glaswegian company, which said he owed them money for storing the barrel.

After getting waylaid by "business, kids and life in general", Kerr said he had only recently contacted broker Mark Littler to try to sell the barrel, which contains enough for approximately 287 bottles.

Kerr said the tasting experts had declared the 57-year-old whisky "absolutely fantastic".

"It could have lost its alcohol content or ended up being very oaky and horrible, so it's very fortunate," he added.

"What we need to find is Elon Musk, [Jeff] Bezos or someone for who £270,000 is just spare change to them."

On how he would spend the proceeds, Kerr said he would not have any "difficulty finding a home for the money" with his children and eight grandchildren.

"But it goes pretty quickly these days," he added.

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