We take a look at some of the highlights from our July auction.
Sensational Springbank
There was no shortage of great single malt whiskies featured in July’s auction from whisky lovers’ perennial favourite Springbank. The most extended bidding battles of the night were fought over a couple of Springbanks bottled back in the early nineties at cask strength for Milroy’s of Soho in London. Springbank 1965 26 Year Old Anniversary Bottling eventually sold for £5,400 and the darker, sherry cask matured Springbank 1965 28 Year Old single cask fetched £4,800. In all, the auction featured four Milroy’s of Soho bottlings that were distilled in 1965 (the other two bottles fetched £3,200 and £3,000 respectively).
Distilled just one year later, there were four delightful 1966 Springbank Local Barley bottlings. The top Campbeltown spot went to the sherry cask matured Springbank 1966 Local Barley Cask Number 443 (sold for £6,200) while the three bottles matured in consecutive bourbon casks 473, 474 and 475, fetched between £3,100 and £3,300.
1980s Distillery Bottlings
We have seen prices increase over the last few years for Scotch whiskies released in the 1960s and 1970s, seen as a ‘golden age’ of whisky, especially among fans of Islay malts. A newer trend has seen more recent iterations of standard distillery releases from the 1980s and 1990 also begin to rise in price.
Just look at what’s been happening to the prices of Macallan 10 Year Old and Macallan 12 Year Old for instance and Lagavulin 16 Year Old too, all have been rising steeply in recent months. This month’s auction saw a litre bottle of Macallan 12 Year Old fetch a hammer price of £1,050, and Lagavulin 16 Year Old sell for £575.
Another notable sale this month was Clynelish 12 Year Old bottled at 57%, which fetched £2,300. This is just a snapshot, other 1980s bottles continued to attract plenty of interest and strong results including this Ardbeg 10 Year Old, Glenfarclas 15 Year Old, Bowmore 12 Year Old, and Glendronach 12 Year Old Sherry Cask.
Japan
While the auction had delicious Japanese malts from Yamazaki, Hibiki, Karuizawa and impressive single cask bottlings from Chichibu, this month it was silent Japanese distillery Hanyu that saw the greatest activity. Distilled in the final year of the distillery being operational and bottled in 2012 for French merchant La Maison du Whisky, this Hanyu 2000 Chibidaru Cask Finish sold for £3,500. Also distilled in 2000 were two bottles of Hanyu 2000 Cask 919 Zuma & Roka bottled for the award-winning Japanese restaurants, which ended with hammer prices of £3,200 and £2,800.
Roundup
In other news, honourable mentions go to yet more great distillates from 1965. Bowmore 1965 25 Year Old bottled by Hart Brothers fetched an impressive £3000 whilst Glen Garioch 1965 21 Year Old sold for £1,650.
However all of these were trumped once again by a bottle of Macallan. This Macallan 1974 30 Year Old Fine & Rare ended the evening on £18,000.
