A dram of vintage Scotch bought by a Chinese millionaire in a Swiss hotel bar for £7,600 was a fake, laboratory tests have concluded.
Analysts from Scotland were called in by the Waldhaus Am See hotel in St Moritz after experts questioned the authenticity of the 2cl shot.
It had been poured from an unopened bottle labelled as an 1878 Macallan single malt.
It is believed to be the largest sum ever paid for a poured dram of Scotch.
But analysis found that it was almost certainly not distilled before 1970.
The hotel said it had accepted the findings and reimbursed the customer in full.
Zhang Wei, 36, from Beijing had paid just under 10,000 Swiss francs (£7,600, $10,050) for the single shot while visiting the hotel's Devil's Place whisky bar in July.
Mr Zhang, who writes martial arts fantasy novels under the pen name Tang Jia San Shao, earned the equivalent of about $16.8m in 2015, according to China Daily.