A Scottish whisky firm on Thursday unveiled bottles of the oldest single malt whisky in the world, having spent the best part of a century inside an oak barrel.

Gordon and MacPhail’s Mortlach 70-Year-Old Speyside was sampled at a launch party in Edinburgh Castle, where it was escorted through the doors by pipers and a military escort.

“It matured for 70 years in the cask and that is what makes it the oldest whisky in the world,” a spokeswoman for Gordon and MacPhail told AFP.

The whisky was filled into its cask on October 15, 1938 by the grandfather of the company’s managing directors David and Michael Urquhart.

China’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine has ousted America as Bordeaux’s number one client outside Europe, latest figures showed Friday.

With overall exports down a large 23 percent in 2009, vintners are now looking to the East to drain their cellars.

“China has become our first client outside the European Union,” said Alain Vironneau, president of the CIVB, Bordeaux’s wine trade body, in a press conference, hailing both Hong Kong and China as “dynamic”.

China’s buying power comes at a particularly opportune moment as France’s leading wine region struggles to survive the economic crisis.

In the sun-drenched south of France, the world’s largest vineyard has launched a new, simplified brand called “Pays d’Oc”, creating the number one French wine export to compete against New World brands.

Languedoc-Roussillon covers 35 percent (or 260,200 hectares) of all French vineyards, making it the biggest producer worldwide.

As of the 2009 vintage, soon to hit store shelves, one-third of that production or 760 million bottles of wine will be sold by vintage and grape variety under the Pays d’Oc brand.

This will make them the world’s fifth largest exporter of varietal wine. And with 33 grape varieties in production in the region, the market potential is impressive.

The German designer Philipp Plein has collaborated with the famous brand of vodka Absolut. He has designed a new outfit for the legendary bottle.

The artist has decorated the one-off creation with precious stones and Swarovski crystals to highlight the skull-shaped creation on the bottle.

This collaboration with the arts has garnered 100 bottles to be sold either in his shop or on the web for 100 euros.

Dom Perignon Wedding was inspired by the magnums of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 which were poured at the 1981 wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles.

Each bottle was inscribed with the Royal’s names and the date of the most viewed wedding in history.

Motivated by this celebrated day, Dom Pérignon will, for the first time in 3 centuries, allow their iconic shield to bear a similar inscription for weddings everywhere.

Sotheby’s will auction off a melchior of Château Cheval Blanc 2006 on Feb. 17 in London, as part of a “finest and rarest wines and vintage Port” auction.

The melchior sized bottle, which is 18 litres in volume is expected to fetch up to 4,800 GBP.

The melchior weighs in at 25kg, is 75cm high with a circumference of 70cm and contains enough wine to pour 144 glasses of wine.