World's most expensive whiskey sold to Chinese drinker is declared 'fake'

The bottle was originally bought 25 years ago for a "five-figure sum.

Bern: A bottle of 'rare' whiskey, with a price tag of $10,000 and sold to a Chinese customer at a Swiss resort hotel, has turned out to be fake, it has emerged.

The prized tipple, claimed to be an 1878 bottle of Macallan Single Malt, was bought in August at the exclusive St Moritz resort in Switzerland.

However, after putting it to a series of laboratory tests by the Scottish whiskey experts and the Oxford University it turned out to be a fake.

After studying the carbon dating of the bottle, the experts have opined that there is a "95 percent probability”, it was created between 1970 and 1972.

Also, the whiskey may not have even been a single malt, the Global Times reported citing the Waldhaus Am See Hotel, which has reimbursed the buyer.

According to the report, its owner Sandro Bernasconi had traveled to China to personally apologize and hand over the check.

"The result has been a big shock to the system.

“We are delighted to have repaid our customer in full as a gesture of goodwill," Bernasconi was quoted as saying.

The bottle was originally bought by Bernasconi's father 25 years ago for a "five-figure sum," the report claimed.