Archive for April, 2009
The 10 Most Expensive Whiskies in the World
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Grain, water, a wooden barrel and a little time. Whisky is a colorful character with an ever-changing spirit. The subject of literature, culture and folklore throughout the world, finicky booze-hounds have long paid a pretty penny for bottles of the most coveted casks. Pour a finger or two and hit the jump to drink in 10 bottles of whisky that truly break the bank.
10: Ladybank Single Malt: $4,700
Rounding out the top of the list is the Ladybank Distillery in Edinburgh, Scotland. Only 300 bottles of the rare Single Malt Scotch are bottled each year, and to obtain one — you have to become a member of the club. The price of admission? — about $4,700 a year.
9: The Macallan 1947 Fine and Rare Collection: $6,800
This sherry cask Speyside scotch was bottled for Italy in 1962 before it was repackaged for Macallan’s Fine and Rare line of whiskies. The distillery used peat in its kilns because of the scarcity and high price of coal during WWII, the 1947 bottle, so this 15 year old has an earthy quality not present in modern Macallans.
8: Chivas Regal Royal Salute 50 year old: $10,000
A swill special enough to be packaged for the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Chivas Regal Royal Salute is a 50 year old Scotch with smoky anise and raisin flavors. Only 255 bottles were made, 10 of which were destined for America, where collectors eagerly poured out $10,000 each.
7: The Macallan 1939 40 year old Fine and Rare Collection: $10,125
“Peaty and powerful,” with overtones of sweet toffee and dried fruits, Macallan’s 1939 is a 40 year old first bottled in 1979. In 2002, it was added to the distillery’s Fine and Rare line and re-bottled. It can be found today for around $10,125.
6: Glenfarclas 1955 50 year old: $10,878
Wealthy tasters are warned to overlook this richly scented 50 year old Speyside at their own “peril.” Spicy and silky with a sweet start, this is the oldest batch ever bottled by the Glenfarclas distillery.
5: Dalmore 50 Year Old Decanter: $11,000
Only 60 crystal-cut bottles of this Highland single malt were produced. Filled in 1978, this dark sherry-aged Dalmore has a reputation for being intense and deeply flavored and is considered by many aficionados among the best 50 year olds in the world.
4: Macallan 55 Year old Lalique Crystal Decanter: $12,500
The eye-catching crystal bottle of Macallan’s 55 year old Lalique was based on a 1910 perfume bottle designed by Rene Lalique . Exotic, with hints of peat smoke, the taste is smooth with lingering citrus overtones.
3: Glenfiddich 1937 Rare Collection: $20,000
Rare doesn’t describe it. Only one bottle of Glenfiddich’s 1937 Rare Collection was ever produced, and it just might be the oldest bottle of whisky in the world. It was snatched up at a 2006 auction for a bargain $20,000.
2: Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt Scotch: $58,000
Only a dozen bottles of Dalmore 62 single malt were corked in 1942. One night in 2005, a man bought a bottle for $58,000, and downed it with five of his buddies.
1: The Macallan 1926 Fine and Rare: $75,000
“Dry and concentrated” — what else would you expect from one of the most expensive whiskies in the world? Help yourself to a little licorice aftertaste. In 2005, a South Korean businessman paid $70,000 for a bottle of Macallan’s 1926, the finest and rarest of the Fine and Rare.
The World’s Most Corrupt Nations
Friday, April 17th, 2009Corruption in nearly half the world’s nations is not getting much better and, indeed, in many countries is intensifying–affecting virtually every aspect of life among peoples on every continent.
While a year ago, some 72 out of 158 nations surveyed by the international watchdog group Transparency International were classified as “corrupt,” now 74 of 163 countries fall into the same category. A few, most notably India, managed to bootstrap themselves (just barely) out of the truly corrupt group, while others, particularly Iran, dug themselves more firmly into that camp.
Haiti
The police continue to be a central factor in corruption in Haiti, though there is corruption in virtually every governmental body. Since the police are also the officials closest to every individual on a daily basis, it is their corruption that changes the nature of daily life in Haiti, permeating all society and the way business is done.
Myanmar
Corruption is perceived as widespread in this vicious dictatorship run with an iron hand by a strong-willed clique of military leaders, who persist in repression of civil society at every level. Illicit facilitation payments and informal fees are required to access even the most basic government services.
Iraq
Huge quantities of funds– especially American military and reconstruction aid funds–swirling through this nation, where many civil structures have largely broken down, is a recipe for corruption at all levels. Beyond kidnappings and ransom payments, TI officials say their survey was conducted in the first half of 2006 when funds being handled by the Coalition Provisional Authority were largely exhausted and no longer being disbursed. So the Iraqi government, where corruption is said to be rampant, was in charge of its own funds. International businessmen from a range of countries converging on Baghdad found finance, export credits, contracts and a host of more mundane functions of government all subject to illicit payments.
Guinea
Guinea has been in a political crisis state for at least three years. Though the current, corrupt president has been in power for 20 years, strong pressure has been building from the public for a change of regime. A public strike that lasted one month finally ended a month ago. There was outright civil strife, obliging the president to appoint a new prime minister. The most controversial, and corrupt, deals surround the mining sector, particularly aluminum. Among foreign businessmen, the general view, according to the TI survey, was that to do business in Guinea you needed “to pay off the guy at the top.”
Sudan
The key event was the switch from a Canadian company that dominated oil drilling in Sudan, the No. 3 oil producer in Africa, to a Chinese company that took over the contract after the Canadians found corruption and an outrageous human rights record was too rife to be able to continue functioning. China is now responsible for 90% of all oil production in Sudan, which also controls oil flow down a large pipeline through southern Sudan to the sea. Chinese officials have declined any comment on the human rights situation, and TI officials say they are “not too worried about having to pay off the Khartoum government.”
Democratic Republic Congo/Kinshasa
Copper in Katanga, and in the rest of the country, gold, uranium and especially coltan, a rare mineral that’s in every cell phone chip, still drive the corruption that remains rampant in this African nation. A presidential election did little to stop the corruption or the resulting violence that erupted again last month in downtown Kinshasha, the nation’s capital. The president is the principal recipient of routine payments by the mining companies who apparently are prepared to play the very lucrative payoff game that remains as endemic now as it was back during the regime of one of Africa’s historically most corrupt leaders, Mobutu Sese-Seko.
Chad
Chad has dropped from No. 1 to No. 7 this year as international aid agencies, particularly the World Bank, have sought to come to grips with one of the world’s most piggish uses of philanthropic funds. Proceeds of a Chad- Cameroon oil pipeline, funded in part by the World Bank and operated by an Exxon Mobil-led consortium, were supposed to have been used to help feed the desperately poor people of both nations. Instead, at least $30 million was diverted to buy arms to keep the government of President Idriss Deby in power. The World Bank, whose president, Paul Wolfowitz, was deeply embarrassed by the fiasco, halted funding more than a year ago, but reached an accord with Chad last July. According to TI officials, the jury’s still out on how effectively it will be implemented.
Bangladesh
There continues to be a general lack of engagement between the government and civil society as repression, corruption throughout government ranks and especially in the judiciary and political circles persists, often spilling over into the private sector. In March, the new military-backed government jailed at least 40 prominent business and
government leaders from two of the leading political parties in what was described as an ongoing probe of corruption, but TI officials are little impressed. Still, after five straight years at the top of the list, Bangladesh has signed the United Nations convention against corruption and has now dropped to No. 8.
Uzbekistan
The most corrupt of the five former Soviet Republics on our list, Uzbekistan is sinking ever deeper into corruption and unrest–in constant turmoil and strife under what the U.S. State Department describes as the authoritarian rule of President Islam Karimov, a communist apparatchik holdover of the old regime, which, while violently suppressing opposition, encourages corruption that permeates society, including the executive branch. Bribery will win you everything from admission to leading educational institutions to a favorable outcome of traffic cases and civil lawsuits.
Equatorial Guinea
One of the world’s smallest oil powers, it is also among the most corrupt. Still, possibly under pressure from the major oil companies that operate there, particularly Exxon Mobil, things have improved a trifle, though the corrupt President Teodoro Obiang Nguema remains in power. Now, though, it’s becoming possible to operate a business on a reasonable basis, provided one accepts that 30% of all funds, including oil profits go straight into the pocket of Nguema. Still, the system of corruption now is more rational and orderly than the previous system that amounted to near-total anarchy.