July 2024 Whisky & Spirits Auction Results

July’s auction saw a wide range of fantastic bottles on offer, from closed distilleries to limited editions and vintage liqueurs. Here is a look through just a few of the highlights from our July 2024 Whisky & Spirits Auction results.

*Aftersales Update*

At the conclusion of our aftersales remaining bottles were snapped up across the board from whiskies to Cognacs and rums.

Offers on Macallan saw this 1971 25 Year Old Anniversary Malt sold for £2,900 while this limited edition collaboration with Sir Peter Blake, the Macallan: An Estate, A Community, and a Distillery fetched £700.

In the rum category the chance to get a hold of a piece of liquid history in the shape of this Black Tot Navy Rum was taken up by a lucky bidder with an offer of £750. For £310 another rum collector was able to pick up this Ron Zacapa Centenario 30 Aniversario, a beautiful set of a decanter and two glasses released to celebrate 30 years since the first Ron Zacapa release.

There were plenty of beautifully presented Cognac decanters on auction this month with only a few left following the conclusion of the auction. These two Godet Renaissance crystal decanters sold for £400 each after receiving aftersales offers.

Finally, a rare chance to pick up a bottle of Chartreuse Yellow ‘La Seicenta’, produced in Tarragona between 1960 and 1965, was taken by a lucky bidder with an offer of £1,400.

Japan

Three of the top six lots were bottles from legendary Japanese distillery Karuizawa. The closed distillery frequently features at the upper end of auctions and this month was no exception with the top two spots going to this Karuizawa 1980 32 Year Old Noh Cask 7614, sold for £8,200, and a Karuizawa 1972 40 Year Old Cask 8833 that fetched £6,000. Third of the entrants in the top six was a Karuizawa 1981 Founder’s Cask 2084 that sold for £4,100.

This gorgeously decorated Hibiki 17 Year Old Mount Fuji sold for £1,600 while a Chichibu 2012 Virgin Oak Barrel #1685, one of only 100 bottles selected for Chotto Mate, reached an impressive £700.

Macallan

Seeing a bit of a resurgence in price, the top Macallan lot this month went to the iconic Macallan Private Eye with a winning bid of £4,600. Close behind was this bottle of Macallan 1958 25 Year Old Anniversary Malt on £4,300 and a Macallan Royal Marriage (£3,600), a vatting of malts from the birth years of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer bottled in 1981 to celebrate their wedding.

With its beautifully illustrated label, this Macallan 1971 Curved Distillery Label from Italian importer Samaroli saw plenty of interest and eventually settled on a hammer price of £2,900.

Mature Whiskies

For fans of more mature malts, there was plenty of choice in the 30 plus age range with collectors favourite Springbank offering up a 1990s 30 Year Old, with a hammer price of £1,750, as well as two of the most recent 2024 30 Year Olds that sold for £1,650 each. Other favourites included 30 year olds from Brora, Balvenie, Laphroaig and Talisker.

Adding a touch of class to the winning bidder’s bar, this Glenfiddich 30 Year Old decanter with a silver stag’s head stopper sold for £1,400.

From Ireland, there was a Locke’s Kilbeggan 1946 34 Year Old Last Known Cask, which despite a slightly low fill level sold for £875 and an Old Comber 30 Year Old that fetched £460.

Long-aged grain whisky can often be picked up for a fraction of the price of similarly aged single malts and there was the chance to pick up some mature bottles from That Boutique-y Whisky Company such as this Girvan 53 Year Old (£180-£210 each), Carsebridge 52 Year Old (£180 each) or Strathclyde 30 Year Old (£70-£75 each). An Invergordon 1972 43 Year Old from Whisky Broker also sold for £190.

Islay

Peat loving whisky fans had plenty of choice with our Islay selection containing some excellent malts. This Ardbeg 1976 Cask #2391, bottled in 1999 from a sherry butt personally chosen by then distillery manager Stuart Thomson, sold for £3,500 while another Ardbeg single cask #1375 distilled in 1975 fetched £2,000. A Port Ellen 1983 35 Year Old bottled by Master of Malt sold for £1,500 and there were other bottles from the recently reopened distillery including a Port Ellen 1978 24 Year Old, the second release from Diageo’s Special Releases series (£1,450) and a Port Ellen 1979 Cask Strength from Gordon & MacPhail (£1,050).

Older releases are always popular amongst collectors and the best way to make up your own mind in the ever ongoing whisky debate of ‘were older bottlings better?’, is to try them for yourself. There were a few 1980s bottlings worth picking up in the auction across a range of price points this month. This Lagavulin 12 Year Old sold for £1000, while you could pick up a litre of Bowmore 12 Year Old for £290. A Laphroaig 10 Year Old, bottled in the late 1970s-1980s reached £800 and an Ardbeg 10 Year Old sold for £550.

Roundup

Once again our auction featured a pair of charity bottles from The Lakes Distillery Private Reserve, kindly donated by the Princess Royal. These fetched £1,800 and £1,950 a piece with all proceeds going to The Chaffinch Trust.

We love a vintage bottle at Whisky.Auction and one of this month’s most interesting was this early 20th century bottle of Chartreuse Yellow, produced in Tarragona. After some competitive bidding, it eventually settled on a hammer price of £4,200.

Sticking with liqueurs, there was a colourful range of Grand Marnier limited editions on offer with prices reaching between £150 and £350.

If fancy decanters are your thing then Cognac rarely disappoints. There were two stunning, angular, baccarat crystal decanters of Richard Hennessy designed by architect Daniel Libeskind sold for £2,200-£2,300. Rarely seen at auction to date is this Courvoisier Mizunara 2023 Edition with its gorgeous gold detailing that fetched £1,650. The Cognac is aged in French Oak barrels before being finished in Japanese Mizunara Oak.

See the full July 2024 Whisky & Spirits Auction results here.

See our past auction roundups here.