OMEN
07-21-2006, 09:08 PM
MEXICO CITY: Forget about the kind of tequila you slam down on the bar or knock back at parties in throat-burning shots with salt and lemon. If you're paying six figures, you might prefer to savour it in small sips.
An impossibly upmarket brand of tequila – 100 per cent blue Agave lovingly aged for six years and sold in a limited edition platinum bottle with fancy artwork on the label – has gone on sale in Mexico for $US225,000 ($NZ366,389.83) a bottle.
"Tonight we are trying for the Guinness Book of Records with the most expensive bottle in the world," Fernando Altamirano, chief executive of producer Tequila Ley.925, told a launch party for the liquor.
Tequila Ley.925 has produced 66 bottles of the "Pasion Azteca" tequila, half of them pure platinum bottles and half of them gold and platinum-decorated bottles that sell for the slightly less extravagant price of $US150,000.
"Since we started out, we began with the idea of making the finest, most expensive bottle of tequila in the world," Altamirano said.
For those on a smaller budget, there are 999 bottles of the same tequila in silver and gold bottles priced at $US25,000.
Showing off one of each type, Altamirano said they had already been sold to a collector, but declined to give away the buyer's identity.
Altamirano, whose company has won awards for its stylish bottles, said his next goal was to create a million-dollar tequila bottle made from diamond-encrusted platinum and auction it at Sotheby's next year.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/images/source/nzpa.gif
An impossibly upmarket brand of tequila – 100 per cent blue Agave lovingly aged for six years and sold in a limited edition platinum bottle with fancy artwork on the label – has gone on sale in Mexico for $US225,000 ($NZ366,389.83) a bottle.
"Tonight we are trying for the Guinness Book of Records with the most expensive bottle in the world," Fernando Altamirano, chief executive of producer Tequila Ley.925, told a launch party for the liquor.
Tequila Ley.925 has produced 66 bottles of the "Pasion Azteca" tequila, half of them pure platinum bottles and half of them gold and platinum-decorated bottles that sell for the slightly less extravagant price of $US150,000.
"Since we started out, we began with the idea of making the finest, most expensive bottle of tequila in the world," Altamirano said.
For those on a smaller budget, there are 999 bottles of the same tequila in silver and gold bottles priced at $US25,000.
Showing off one of each type, Altamirano said they had already been sold to a collector, but declined to give away the buyer's identity.
Altamirano, whose company has won awards for its stylish bottles, said his next goal was to create a million-dollar tequila bottle made from diamond-encrusted platinum and auction it at Sotheby's next year.
http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/images/source/nzpa.gif