1-of-a-Kind Beefeater Bottle With Gold Label, Ruby Embellishment Heads to Auction With Shockingly High Price for Gin
This pricey bottle of Beefeater Gin is embellished with a 9-carat gold label and a single ruby. (Photo: Whiskey Auction)
A one-of-a-kind bottling of Beefeater Gin commemorating the coronation of King Charles III has hit the auction block with a guide price of £3,000 ($3,853.41). While this sum certainly doesn’t reach the lofty heights of what rare whiskey can garner at auctions, it’s a shocking price for gin, which seldom sells for over $50 per bottle — and that’s for the “premium” stuff.
According to Beefeater, the auctioned bottle of Beefeater Crown Jewel boasts a 9-carat gold label produced by London-based goldsmiths and silversmiths Thomas Lyte and a ruby embellishment. The liquid inside is an “elevated” 50%-ABV expression of the iconic brand’s London dry and offers prominent notes of grapefruit peel with an “unmistakable depth.”
Related: Beefeater London Dry Gin Review
The Crown Jewel expression itself debuted as a special rerelease in November 2022. Before then, it had not been available for nearly 20 years.
Commenting on the one-of-a-king bottling, Murielle Dessenis, Global Brand Director for Beefeater, said: “This truly is a masterpiece of craftsmanship, where we have combined the legendary, distilling talents of our Master Distiller Emeritus Desmond Payne, with the quality of Thomas Lyte’s world-class exquisite precious metal work.”
“The inspiration for this collaboration is our long-standing affinity with the guardians of the Crown Jewels, which were front-and-centre of the coronation ceremony, the Yeoman Warders. Beefeater Crown Jewel has been loved by bartenders since its initial release almost 20 years ago and so it felt right to ensure any money raised by this commemorative bottle is given back to those in the drinks industry.”
The auction, run by Whiskey Auction, ran from May 28 to June 6 and, according to the bid history, the bottle appears to have sold for £2,500 ($3,210.49). While a touch under the original guide price, this still places the bottle among the world’s most expensive gins, with the Guinness World Record winner being priced at about $4,878.
Furthermore, 100% of the proceeds raised at the auction for the Beefeater Crown Jewel are to be donated to The Drinks Trust, a charity dedicated to the drinks and hospitality workforce in the U.K. We call that a huge gin win!
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