True story… I‘m teaching a surfboard workshop in Kyoto, Japan… As a thank you gift, the participants give me a nice bottle of local whisky as a going away present…
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(Above) The region is know for their fine whisky…
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(Above) KAMPAI...!!!…
I‘m about to fly back home and going though the airport there is a Duty Free Shop… I’ll get another bottle to bring back… Looking at the whisky shelf, there are several better bottles on the shelf… One is 120 something yen , there are a couple of 50 something yen… I choose a 50 something, 21 years old Suntory Hibiki…
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Get home, look up what I bought… “Best Blended Whisky in the world“ for several consecutive years…Wow…!!!… Great…!!!… Start looking at the prices…All I can find is euro prices, something in the €350 range… Boy, did I get a deal…!!!…
I get out the receipt from the duty free store, get out my calculator and realize I did not get a $50 bottle, I bought a $500 bottle… What do I know about exchange rates and currency differences…???… My wife and adult daughter are there when this becomes apparent… Jaws drop, “You did what” ?… If I could have, I would have returned it, but now all I can do is enjoy it and share it with friends… And I did… And it was beyond good…!!!…
In the end I ended up with a couple cool things: A GREAT bottle of whisky and a pretty good story…
Now that same bottle is over $1,700…
https://www.caskers.com/hibiki-21-year-old-blended-japanese-whisky/