It's a snip at pounds800 a bottle Whisky drinkers are being offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to sample a rare Scottish malt.

Whisky drinkers are being offered a once in a lifetime opportunityto sample a rare Scottish malt.

A limited edition bottle of Highland Park 1958, which claims to bethe "best spirit in the world", is being sold at Oddbins in Aberdeen.

Only 665 bottles of the whisky were ever made and it is the onlyone of its kind left in Britain.

But whisky connoisseurs will have to splash out pounds800 in orderto fill their glass with the nectar.

Todd Baldwin, 27, who works at the city centre shop, today said:"It is a collector's dream.

"Everybody seems to want to taste the whisky but not everyone canafford it.

"We have lost count of the number of people who have stopped andstared as they walked past the window. They obviously have expensivetaste."

Staff at the wine merchants have showcased the bottle, numbered327, in the window of Oddbins in Union Street, Aberdeen.

The 40-year-old whisky, which was bottled in 1998, is the last ofits kind to be offered for sale to the public.

Todd, an Australian who moved to Scotland six months ago, added:"I wasn't a big fan of whisky until I moved here and now I love thestuff."

Highland Park Distillery, based in Orkney, said it was surprisedthe rare bottle was only being sold for pounds800 and claimed it wasa bargain.

Pat Retson, visitor centre manager at the company's distillery inKirkwall, said: "It is rare to hear of a bottle of this kind beingsold on the open market.

"We have saved a sample here but they are not for sale in that wayand if they were they would be worth thousands - so this is abargain."

Simon Downs, of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, said: "It is rareto find a 40-year-old malt available in the shops."

But he added: "This sale should create a bit of interest frompeople who drink whisky all over the world."

ee.news@ajl.co.uk