An Auctioneer’s Guide to…Private Cask Bottlings
At Whisky.Auction we regularly list private cask bottlings. Here are a few recent examples of excellent single cask malts.
If you haven’t heard about private whisky cask ownership in the last few years, I don’t know where you’re been! For better or worse, it’s a growing trend which has seen both whisky lovers and ‘investors’ jump aboard, and many companies have been set up to make private cask ownership more attainable for the general public. But once that whisky has sat in its cask for long enough, what next?
Some owners will choose to sell their cask on, hoping to make a profit on their original purchase price, but the other option is to bottle that whisky. Whether done through the distillery that is holding the cask or privately (and that in itself opens a whole can of worms!) the owner will eventually be left with, on average, 250-260 bottles, depending on how much the angels took during the aging process.
Now, any one whisky lover will probably struggle to drink (and store) that many bottles of an individual whisky, and even after gifting is taken into account there will certainly be bottles left over. That’s where auction platforms like Whisky.Auction come into play, allowing whisky cask owners to share their bottlings with other whisky lovers worldwide – and hopefully recover some of the original investment!
For the buyer, private bottlings can often provide more diversity than official bottlings as owners may think outside the box and are unconstrained by any of the corporate demands or market trends of whisky allowing for greater creativity. As a result, private casks are often a good chance to purchase malts released at higher strength, in interesting cask finishes or different age statements than official distillery releases and often at a very reasonable price.
At Whisky.Auction we regularly collaborate with cask owners to sell their bottles. Below are a few great examples that you are likely to see in our upcoming auctions.
View all private cask bottlings
Do you have a private cask bottling to sell? Get in touch with us for advice or request a valuation.
Ben Nevis 1996 19 Year Old Cask 1424, 51.8%ABV
This is a great example of a success story where a cask owner has been able to share their private cask via auction. We opened a few bottles at our Whisky Show stand for clients to taste and even managed to get Serge Valentin of Whiskyfun.com to review the bottle about which he said the following:
‘This is right up my alley, with an amazing purity, and yet BN’s traditional fatness and oiliness (rapeseed, grape pips). Fantastic paraffin, chalk, Sancerre, flints, fresh croissants and baguette… Mouth (neat): sweet Jiminy Cricket! Rum reduction, soot, chalk and plaster, mint, liquorice… It’s just a master distillate from a cool, elegant and respectful little cask. With water: perfection made whisky. What’s not perfect here?… Finish: oh my, what a glorious, pure, fat, fruitier, mineral unfolding! A lot of wax in the aftertaste, a bit ala best-year-Clynelish.’ 93 Points, Serge Valentin, Whiskyfun.
These bottles have sold for as much as £550 at auction to date. This particular cask bottling is exclusive to Whisky.Auction so keep an eye out on upcoming auctions to grab a bottle.
Ben Nevis 2005 18 Year Old Cask 399, 56.5%ABV
Another single cask from Ben Nevis, this time an 18 year old distilled in 2005 and matured in a single hogshead.
Bruichladdich 2009 10 Year Old Rivesaltes Cask 3653, 50%ABV
An example of an interesting cask finish, this malt was matured for 10 years in a Rivesaltes wine hogshead. Rivesaltes is a sweet fortified wine produced in the south of France and has helped give this Bruichladdich a reddish tinge and notes of dried fruit.
Bruichladdich 13 Year Old Cask 3616, 60.6%ABV
This Bruichladdich 13 year old was matured in a bourbon cask and bottled at a spicy 60.6% and indeed has been titled ‘Spicy Lung 13’ for reasons known only to the cask owners.
Bruichladdich 2009 12 Year Old Cask 3624, 55%ABV
At just a year younger, this cask of Bruichladdich was distilled in 2009 and matured in a first fill Bourbon barrel for 12 years. According to the tasting notes it has a beautifully soft floral finish with delightful malty overtones. Sounds good.
Lochranza 1996 21 Year Old Cask 1511, 50.2%ABV
From the Isle of Arran, this Lochranza was distilled in October 1996, matured in a single cask for more than 21 years, and bottled in April 2018 at a natural cask strength of 50.2%. A lovely rich and spicy nose packed full of stewed red fruits. Toffee and sweet spices follow in the mouth alongside classic sherry notes of raisin and fruit peel with a long and mellow finish.
Port Charlotte 2004 18 Year Old Cask 914, 50%ABV
Port Charlotte is Bruichladdich’s peated expression, and this 18 year old cask strength smoky Islay malt was distilled in 2004. The tasting notes promise a lingering smooth and smoky finish.
Springbank 1992 17 Year Old Cask 225, 56.4%ABV
This private cask of Springbank was distilled in 1992, matured in a single cask and bottled at 17 years of age at a cask strength of 56.4%. We don’t know much more about it, but as aged, cask strength Springbank it has to be worth a bid.
Springbank 1992 27 Year Old Cask 273, 48.4%ABV
Another privately bottled Springbank, also distilled in December 1992, but matured in a single refill bourbon hogshead for 27 years before being bottled in March 2020. A great chance to own a very mature, cask strength Springbank without the price tag of an official distillery release.
This bottling was also reviewed by the team at WhiskyFun – this time by Angus who awarded the whisky an excellent 92 points.
Colour: pale gold. Nose: immediately superb! Wonderfully dry, rooty, turfy peat smoke, hessian canvas, beeswax, seawater, heather honey and impressions of aged mead and old Benedictine. Probably my favourite ‘style’ of Springbank. Mouth: once again, superb peat character, only here it manifests as cleaner, sharper, more brittle and tightly structured. Dry, mineral, smokiness with many coastal inflections, ink, sheep wool, coal scuttle and beach pebbles. A few hints of gorse flower and lemon peel too, all wrapped up in a very rich, waxy texture. Finish: long, very slightly mentholated, more bitter citrus notes, celery salt, more crisp and drying peat smoke. Then herbal notes in the aftertaste and medicinal notes. Comments: pristine and immaculate mature Springbank, with almost Longrow-esque peat character at times. 92 points. Angus McRalid, WhiskyFun
Strathearn 2015 8 Year Old Single Cask 84-06, 56.3%ABV
Established in 2013, Strathearn is still a relatively young distillery and as such, there is not a great amount of aged malts available from them at present, so this private cask is a chance to taste their single malt with a bit of age. Matured in an ex Pedro Ximenez Sherry cask, this unpeated malt was bottled in 2023 at a cask strength of 56.3% and only 125 bottles were produced.