Whisky.Auction Highlights Of 2025
2025 at Whisky.Auction. A look back at some auction highlights from our 10th anniversary year.
2025 was a big year for Whisky.Auction that saw us celebrate our 10th anniversary. We have seen many ups and downs over the last decade and after a bit of a downturn in the market, we have begun to see some green shoots of recovery this year. We saw plenty of stunning bottles pass through the auctions and the interest and enthusiasm of collectors and drinkers shows no signs of abating whatever the market and outside factors may throw at them.
We wanted to celebrate reaching this milestone and created a special market report featuring not only some market insight from auction staff but a deep dive into a handful of the brands, that for a variety of reasons have a special place in the hearts and minds of enthusiasts and the industry alike. We were lucky enough to have friend of the auction and author of ‘Everything You Need To Know About Whisky’ and ‘A Long Stride’, Dr Nicholas Morgan, to share his knowledge and insight. The report is available to all our customers and you can find it by logging into your Whisky.Auction account and clicking the link at the top of the page.
Scotch Whisky
It won’t surprise anyone to find out that the top three lots of the year in terms of hammer price were taken by Macallan, however the collector’s favourite only managed to take just over half of the top ten lots in 2025. Each auction tells a different story with a more diverse range of distilleries topping our monthly auctions and featuring the likes of Bowmore, Dalmore, Brora and Loch Lomond as well as some Japanese malts from Karuizawa and Chichibu.
We closed out the year on a high with the number one spot being taken in our final auction of the year by this gorgeous Macallan 50 Year Old Lalique, not only a first release from The Lalique Six Pillars Collection but bottle number three of the 470 decanters created. It achieved a hammer price of £75,000.
A Macallan 1928 50 Year Old Anniversary Malt sold in our February auction for £42,000, and the same auction saw a Macallan 78 Year Old from the Red Collection finish just behind, reaching a price of £41,000.
Mature malts were a running theme and we saw a variety of long-aged whiskies pass through the auction in addition to the trio mentioned above. This Dalmore 1926 50 Year Old sold in the April auction for £10,000, while a Dalmore 45 Year Old fetched £9,000 in January. Auction topping lots of 40 year old plus included a Brora 1972 40 Year Old (£19,500) in July, a Macallan 1946 52 Year Old Select Reserve (£8,400) in March, in October this Bowmore 1955 40 Year Old (£10,800), and a Loch Lomond 1967 54 Year Old (£14,200) in November.
Just a handful of some of the standout lots among the thousands of scotch whiskies we sold this year included a very rare chance to grab a full case of Bowmore 8 Year Old Sherriff’s bottled in the 1970s and in their original cardboard case. The winning bid was £13,600 after some very fiercely competitive bidding.
There was also a rare chance to bid on a full set of Antica Casa Marchesi Spinola Collection No.1 (£4,200) featuring all six of the single malts bottled in 1990 and imported by Sestante.
Springbank Local Barley always draw attention but a particularly heavily sherried Springbank 1966 Local Barley Cask Number 443 was a popular lot in November selling for £6,200.
Indie Bottles
As ever, it is worth exploring the indie bottler offerings in any auction as you never know what gems may be among the often understated labels. There was plenty of choice throughout the year from the likes of Gordon & MacPhail, Cadenhead’s, Signatory Vintage and many more.
For fans of cask strength single cask bottlings, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society usually has something for all tastes. Our January auction saw this incredibly dark Springbank 1964 31 Year Old sell for £3,500 and a Brora 1977 25 Year Old fetch £1,850, while in November this Rosebank 1978 equaled its previous auction record selling for £4,300. Interestingly another Springbank 1964 27.39 in slightly better condition and with a branded box sold in October for £6,200 nearly doubling the price achieved in January.
Another few worth mentioning include this Laphroaig 1965 20 Year Old (£6,000) bottled by Gordon & MacPhail and imported to Italy by Intertrade and this Caol Ila 1968 20 Year Old (£1,350), also imported by Intertrade. Sticking with 60s distillate, an Ardbeg 1967 28 Year Old bottled by Signatory Vintage achieved £3,500 in July.
Diageo’s discontinued Rare Malts Series continued to prove popular with collectors and this Brora 1972 22 Year Old from February’s auction, sold for £4,400.
Blended Whisky
Blends are often overlooked by malt fans but I would strongly encourage any whisky fan to explore the incredible bargains you can find at auction in the blended category with the ability to pick up bottles well over half a century old for very reasonable prices. Opening and exploring these historic bottles can be a joy.
We saw some incredibly well-preserved vintage blends pass through the auction this year with bottles such as this 1950s/60s White Horse blend in impeccable condition and including the original box (£575) or this 1955 White Horse (£600). An intriguing unbranded Fine Scotch Whisky bottled in the late 1800s fetched £825 in November and a Haig & Haig dating from the 1940s sold for £230 in our final auction of the year.
Japanese Whisky
Recent market reports have shown Japanese whiskies to be taking a bit of a nosedive in prices over the past year. However the heights they had reached previously were considerable and they are by no means selling for small prices despite not reaching these previous highs. We saw a pair of sister Karuizawa Aika Geisha casks starting out the year strongly with the 30 Year Old selling for £10,200 and the 29 Year Old fetching £7,800.
The February auction featured almost 100 Japanese bottles and among them a handful of Karuizawa Noh series bottlings attracted plenty of competitive bidding with the highest price of £9,600 going to this Karuizawa 1971 41 Year Old Noh Cask 1842.
Besides Karuizawa, other popular Japanese whiskies from Yamazaki like this 25 Year Old (£5,200), Hibiki and Chichibu all featured consistently this year among other highlights such as this Hanyu 1991 Ichiro’s Malt Two Of Diamonds (£4,100) from the highly collectible Card Series.
World Whiskies
Outside of Scotch and Japanese whiskies, it was a Devil’s Keep 1991 Inaugural Release that took top billing with a price of £6,600 in October. In April there were two bottles of Whistlepig 12 Year Old The Boss Hog, both first edition releases bottled from a single barrel for the First Step series that fetched £3,100-£3,300.
For any whiskey lovers looking to brighten up their home bars, we had a wonderful array of Jim Beam decanters over the year featuring everything from trains and classic cars to salad bowls and spark plugs!
Cognac
January started off the year strong for the Cognac category with a range of vintage eaux de vies dating as far back as this Francois De Marange 1800 Grande Champagne Cognac (£3,500) as well as a pair of Frapin & Co 1812 and 1889 Cognacs fetching £2,600 and £1,650.
There were plenty more vintage cuvees that appeared in our sales throughout the year, in addition to popular collectibles such as this No.8 Inedit from the Courvoisier Erte series that sold for £1,850 in December. Auction staples from iconic marques Remy Martin, Hennessy, Martell and Courvoisier featured monthly with the likes of Louis XIII and Richard Hennessy decanters regularly occupying the top lots in the category.
Rum
Top Rum lot of the year went to this pair of 1950s Royal Navy Rum Flagons, still in their original crate, that sold for £5,600 in August, while in October another pair minus the crate fetched £4,000.
The oldest liquid sold was a St James 1885 Plantation Rhum (£4,900) bottled in the 1940s. Other vintage bottles, such as those from lost distillery Caroni saw inevitable interest with a few Caroni 90 Proof Navy Rums dating from the 1960s fetching between £1,250 and £1,500 in March and April.
In the June auction a stunning Havana Club 1519 decanter, one of only 500 created to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the city of Havana sold for £3,800.
One of the most hotly contested rums of the year was this Guyana 1974 Demerara Rum that eventually settled on a hammer price of £2,800 at the close of our November auction.
Liqueurs
As ever, the interest in Chartreuse was strong over the past year and our auctions featured bottles spanning the 20th Century. This Chartreuse Yellow (1951-56) sold in January for £2,000, setting an auction record price straight out of the gates. In August a Chartreuse Green (1941-51) reached £2,200.
Interest in vintage liqueurs appears to be continuing to grow and vintage bottles such as this 1940s Lillet (£1,050), 1920s Cinzano Amaro (£470) and 1950s Bonomelli Bitter Milano (£410) have been fetching some impressive prices.
Campari has seen a resurgence in interest driven partly by the trend for vintage cocktails and single bottles have fetched up to £400 like this 1950s Campari Bitter, while a case of Campari Bitter bottled in 1974 fetched £1,450.
Charity Auctions
We always like to use the auction for charity collaborations when we can and this year was no different. We began in January featuring a bottle of Havana Club 7 Year Old designed in collaboration with jeweller Jonathan Raksha. There were 200 of these rather shiny bottles created, but this was the only one with a unique pendant depicting ‘La Giraldilla’, the Havana Club logo, made from 24-Carat gold set with VVS lab grown diamonds. You can read an interview with its creator in our magazine. The bottle raised £2,300 for The Drinks Trust.
In our May auction we had a unique set of Chichibu containing three single cask bottles, all exclusively bottled for London’s famous Sexy Fish restaurant and bar, known for having the world’s largest collection of Japanese whisky. The bottles were donated to raise funds for the Caring Family Foundation and fetched a mighty £5,200 for a great cause.
Miniatures
We slimmed down our miniatures, books and memorabilia auctions this year, putting on only two sales in April and October. Miniatures can achieve prices that belie their diminutive size and our April auction saw a variety of bottles from the Macallan Fine & Rare Collection fetching between £500-£1600 each with the top price taken by this Macallan 1948 53 Year Old.
The chance to pick up a sample of some very rare liquid without splashing out for the equivalent full size versions was taken by the buyers of these miniatures of Dalmore 50 Year Old and Glenfiddich 50 Year Old, both won for £1,400 a piece.
Perhaps the most surprising miniature lot of the year was a selection of Bell’s decanters that fetched a whopping £625.
Wine
Our two wine sales this year were packed with amazing wine and champagne and more than a few 100 point scoring cuvees. Top lot in June was a 1961 Hermitage La Chapelle with the Rhone classic beating the usual Bordeaux and Burgundy producers to the top spot with a price of £4,300. There was however, no shortage of fine Bordeaux to be found and bottles such as this 1982 Chateau Petrus (£2,500), 1959 Chateau Haut Brion (£1,000) and 1961 Chateau Latour (£1,600) are just a few examples.
December was more Burgundy focused with the top 5 lots all from the region and three of them from Corton Charlemagne with this 1990 Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru from Coche-Dury (another 100 pointer) taking the highest hammer price of £4,000.
As ever, there are many more bottles worth a mention but I will wrap it here and the links below can be used to further explore all the great lots from the past year.
All that remains to be said is a massive thank you to all of our sellers, buyers and bidders in 2025 and we look forward to seeing what incredible bottles will head our way in 2026.