Whisky.Auction Highlights of 2024

2024 was a particularly interesting year for whisky auctions, with an unpredictable secondary spirits market seeing some unexpected  price highs as well as a reset for some of the bottles that were achieving sky-high prices at auction over the last few years. There were plenty of excellent bottles to be found at auction and we sold some stellar lots over the past year. So pour yourself a dram and join us for a look through some of the Whisky.Auction highlights of 2024

Scotch Whisky

It will be no surprise to auction regulars that we both started and finished the year with Macallan taking the top spots. January’s auction was topped by a Macallan Distil Your World London Edition (£8,000), while our December auction rounded out the year with a stunning pair of bottles from the Macallan Red Collection, a 78 Year Old sold for £37,000 and a 74 Year Old for £35,000. The most expensive bottle sold this year prize was also taken by the 78 Year Old Red Collection, fetching £45,000 in our February auction.

Other Macallan of note included this gorgeous 72 Year Old In Lalique Genesis Decanter sold for £39,500 in October and a Macallan 1950 Tales Of The Macallan Volume I presented in a beautifully etched Lalique Crystal decanter, sold in March for £38,000.

Besides Macallan, there were other long-aged whiskies such as this Glengoyne 50 Year Old, sold in June for £12,800, a Dalmore 45 Year Old (£9,400), and a beautifully presented set from Springbank, one of only 50 created, containing a 20cl bottle of each of the Millennium Collection, spanning 25 to 50 year old malts, housed in a wooden case (£11,000).

Historic Whiskies

The highlights of any auction are often the historic bottles, single malt or blends. The evolution that can be seen in the label designs, closure styles and packaging gives a sense of the period they were bottled in. Older bottles are often very understated and simple, and often more appealing, to my eye at least, than the ever busier and more elaborate modern branding we see from many producers.

From this year, just a few that caught the eye were this Rosebank 20 Year Old bottled in the 1970s by George Strachan, with a simple illustrated label, sold for £875 in May while this 1960s Talisker High Strength Pure Malt in our September auction sold for £1,500. In incredible condition and with the original box and tags, this 1970s  Bowmore Sherriff’s was won for what seems like an absolute steal at £1,050. Lastly, bottled by James Mutch in the 1950s-60s, this Macallan-Glenlivet Liqueur Whisky was sold in March for £1,950.

Old blends can be equally fascinating and a few blended whisky lots of note were this 1922 White Horse (£4,000), Mackie’s Ancient Brand bottled in the 1940s-50s and believed to contain some of the almost mythical Malt Mill (£1,800), and an incredibly well-preserved trio of 1950s Haig’s Gold Label in their original packaging including Christmas box, sold for £625 in May.

Independent Bottlers

When hunting for some truly special bottles (or indeed some incredible bargains), it can be a good idea to take a look outside of official distillery releases and explore the independent bottlings on offer at auction. We saw some stunning indie bottles pass through the auction this year and a few of the stand outs included this Springbank 1965 Cask Strength from Cadenhead’s white label collection (£7,200), a Mortlach 1930 bottled by George Cowie and Sons for the German market (£6,400), a Glenburgie 1966 22 Year Old bottled by Sestante (£2,400), Highland Park 1957 21 Year Old from Cadenhead’s ‘dumpy’ range (£2,200), and a wide variety of outstanding bottles from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, including this Rosebank 1979 sold for £1,500, and Springbank 1965 (£2,900).

Samaroli is a name that is synonymous with incredible malts and we were lucky enough to see a diverse range of these pass through our sales this year. This deliciously dark Longmorn-Glenlivet 1974 sold in November for £5,000, while this Caol Ila 1968 Full Proof sold for an impressive £7,800. A Glenlivet 1971 fetched £1,750 in January and a Teaninich 1959 22 Year Old sold for £3,100 in December. A personal favourite among the many fantastically illustrated labels of Samaroli, this Macallan 1971 fetched £2,900.

Japanese Whisky

The Japanese whisky category continues to attract fans among drinkers and collectors alike for both the frequently fantastic liquid and some truly stunning presentation. While some Karuizawa bottlings saw a decline in prices this year – almost inevitably given how astronomical some had gone – we still saw some beauitful bottles from the brand come to auction, as well as from other Japanese staples such as Yamazaki. Speaking of which, it is rare for the highest price of the year not to go to Karuizawa, but this year that honour went to this bottle of Yamazaki 1984 25th Anniversary, released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Yamazaki single malt in 2009, with a hammer price of £14,200 in our May auction.

The highest reaching Karuizawa was a short way behind with this 34 Year Old Ruby Geisha fetching £13,000 in March. Usually known for its gorgeous labels, particularly on the Geisha bottlings, Karuizawa did throw up some of the more unconventionally presented bottles this year with a three bottle set of Karuizawa 1999-2000 Three Wise Monkey Collection from Wealth Solutions (£7,000), which may well have some traditional fans covering their eyes to see no evil, but it’s a fun presentation that would definitely start a conversation if they were displayed on the winning bidders home bar or drinks cabinet.

World Whiskeys

Top US whiskey lot this year appeared in our November auction, which saw a fantastic bottle sold for charity with this Michter’s Celebration Sour Mash 2016 fetching £9,600 in aid of Equal Measures. Our June auction saw this Old Fashioned Copper 1994 in its hand cut crystal bottle fetch £3,100 and if vintage bottles are more appealing, in August this Very Old Fitzgerald 8 Year Old 1957 sold for £2,600.

December saw a pair of rye whiskies attract plenty of attention with a rare 1985 Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye fetching £3,000 and a Hirsch Selection 13 Year Old Rye selling for £2,000. But top rye of the year was comfortably taken by Canada’s Whistlepig 12 Year Old The Boss Hog, a first edition bottling that fetched £6,400 in June becoming our most expensive bottle sold in the World Whisky category (not including US or Irish whiskeys).

From Ireland we had a beautiful old bottle of Dunville’s VR bottled in the 1940s-50s in March that sold for £1,050. April was probably the best auction for fans of Irish Whiskey with a selection of some of the rarer Midleton Very Rare releases including the 2009 (£2,600) and 1987 (£2,300) as well as a Coleraine 1959 34 Year Old (£1,700) and a few lovely vintage Jameson dating back to the 1930s.

We were delighted to list some unique bottles from The Lakes Distillery from the private cask of The Princess Royal, who opened the distillery in 2015. These bottles of The Princess Royal’s Private Reserve fetched a combined £12,850 for charity, The Chaffinch Trust.

Cognac

Cognac is great at bottling very old liquids in very shiny decanters. This winning combination gave us our top lot of the year in the category, taken in April by this Remy Martin Louis XIII Black Pearl, sold for £8,400. This lot was a 35cl decanter of extremely rare liquid drawn from a single tiercon containing a blend of over 1200 eaux-de-vie, some of which are over a century old.

Over two centuries old, this A.E. Dor 1818 Cognac was bottled in the early 20th century. This piece of liquid history went for a winning bid of £2,700 in May.

If you prefer your Cognac presented in a more modern style then maybe this rather angular creation of Richard Hennessy by architect Daniel Libeskind is more your thing. It sold for £2,300 in our July auction.

Liqueurs

With vintage cocktails continuing to trend there was plenty of interest over the year in vintage liqueurs, spirits and vermouth. Chartreuse continues to inspire collectors, with this Chartreuse Yellow bottled in the early 20th Century in Tarragona showing the level of its appeal with a winning bid of £4,200 in July. This 50cl Chartreuse Green Jadis bottled in the early 1930s also hit an impressive hammer price of £2,000.

Campari has also consistently attracted good prices with bottles dating from the 1950s to 1980s frequently selling for between £100 to £200 and older bottles fetching more. This 1930s Campari Bitter sold for £550 in November.

Miniatures

We may have had less miniature auctions this year but there was no shortage of fantastic mini bottles to bid on. The year started off with a miniatures, memorabilia and books auction in January and there were some very large prices achieved by small bottles. An opportunity to collect a piece of real liquid history, distilled at a time when Campbeltown was a thriving hub of the whisky industry with many more distilleries than the current three, this Springbank 1919 50 Year Old sold for £3,100. Bottled at the same age and listed in the same auction, this Black Bowmore 1964 50 Year Old sold for £1,750 for only 2cl of whisky.

There were some outstanding historical miniatures on offer across this year’s auctions and a particular standout was this Old Orkney, produced at the Stromness Distillery and bottled in the 1920s, it sold for £1,050. Some other beautiful rare vintage bottles included a Laphroaig Old Scotch Whisky from the 1950s (£825), a Glenfiddich Special Pure Malt bottled in the 1940s (£240) and another Old Orkney, this time in a different shaped bottle from the 1930s that fetched £160.

Selling for many times the price of their full size counterparts, these Yamazaki 18 Year Old miniatures, bottled in 2004, fetched between £2,200 and £2,400 each.

Not to be overshadowed by single malts, our April auction saw the top spot taken by a collection of blended scotch whisky including a variety of miniature ceramic decanters that reached a whopping £1,600.

Wine

Our wine auctions finished the year on a high with an incredible bottle of 2005 Romanee Conti Monopole that became our most expensive single bottle wine lot to date with a hammer price of £11,000.

While the Romanee Conti achieved an oh so close rating of 99+/100 by Allan Meadows of Burghound, we had plenty of bottles this year that had achieved coveted 100 point status. Among those were a 1961 Chateau Petrus (£4,100) sold in June, 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild (£700), a 1986 Chateau Lafite Rothschild (£600), 1990 Chateau Margaux (£600), and numerous others. Not to be left out, a fortified 100 pointer in the shape of this 2011 Quinta Do Noval Nacional, described as ‘the kind of elixir that leaves you speechless’ by Neal Martin of Wine Advocate, fetched £700.

Although much of the top lots were dominated by Bordeaux and Burgundy, there were wide ranging outstanding cuvees from around the globe such as a 1998 Pingus from Spain’s Ribeira del Duero (£480), a 1988 Bolgheri Sassicaia (£450), 2012 Harlan Estate (£650) from Napa Valley and a 1998 Penfolds Grange (£310).

As part of our Fine Wine Auction in June we marked English Wine Week by hosting an English wine auction in aid of the Gerard Basset Foundation, which included unique experiences as well as bottles donated by some of the UK’s most prestigious wineries. The auction raised over £7,000 for the foundation.

It wouldn’t do to overlook the fizz category and there was plenty of fantastic Champagne from the likes of Dom Perignon, Krug and Louis Roederer. Hopefully some will be enjoyed over the festive season.

There just isn’t enough space to list all the amazing bottles we auctioned over the past year but you can browse our past auctions at the link below. All that remains to be said is a massive thank you to all of our sellers, buyers and bidders in 2024 and here’s to more fantastic auctions in 2025.

See all our 2024 auction results here.