A whisky created once only and never to be repeated - the Dalmore Oculus (so - not something from a Harry Potter story then) - went under the hammer at Bonhams in Edinburgh earlier this week for £23,000.

It was predicted to go for £20,000 and although it surpassed this, it did not take the world record. This - also for a Dalmore single malt, 1943 vintage - stands at the £32,000 an English bidder paid for it in 2005.

And then, in 2007, a bottle of Islay’s Bowmore, said - and questioned - to have been bottled around 1850, sold for £29,400.

So the Dalmore Oculus looks like it’s in third palce in the history books - for now.

Master distiller Richard Paterson created it on 18th October to celebrate the 20th anniversary of whisky auctions and describes it as ‘the most exquisite expression I have crafted’.

It had better be. Its 125cl works out at £920 a dram.