A competitor for the world’s most expensive cocktail was destroyed after a customer at London’s Playboy Club accidentally broke the bottle of 224-year-old cognac. The cognac was worth more than $77,000 and was “the world’s most expensive cocktail” was going to be mixed in front of judges from the Guinness World Records.

According to Evening Standard, the cognac — a Clos de Griffier Vieux from 1788 — was smashed when a businessman asked to see the bottle. The man ordered two glasses of the brandy at $7,800 each before he asked to see the bottle. When the man stood up, the bottle fell down.

World renowned mixologist Salvatore Calabrese was to mix the potentially record-breaking cocktail:

‘We all just froze, then it sunk in. I’ve been heartbroken. Not because of the value of the bottle, but because it is a piece of history that has been lost,” Calabrese told the Standard.

The bottle had previously been in the cellars of Paris restaurant La Tour d’Argent before appearing on the menu at the Playboy Club, reports The Drinks Business.

It was also once part of a record-breaking auction in 2009.

The businessman, who is a regular at the club, has been forgiven by the Playboy Club.

Elite.