March 2025 Whisky & Spirits Auction Results

March saw a very Macallan dominant auction with the firm auction favourite taking nine of the top ten lots, but there were plenty more gems to be found. Read on for a look at just some of the March Whisky & Spirits auction highlights.

Mature Malts

Mature malts was a strong theme in the auction with the longest aged of all taking the top spot. This Macallan 1946 52 Year Old Select Reserve took that honour with a hammer price of £8,400. Placed in cask not long after the end of World War II, this spirit was left undisturbed until its bottling in 1998. It comes presented in a lockable wooden case with a certificate of authenticity signed by the distillery manager.

Slightly younger, but distilled even earlier, the second place lot was this Macallan 1940 Handwritten Label (£5,400). Also with plenty of oak ageing were this MacDuff 1967 35 Year Old from Douglas Laing’s Old and Rare Platinum Selection (£470) and Speyside 1973 43 Year Old bottled by the Whisky Agency, which despite the undisclosed distillery, sold to a curious bidder for £575.

There were some fantastic 30 year old malts available from across the various whisky regions of Scotland so there was something for all tastes. If peat smoke is your preference, this Laphroaig 30 Year Old (£825) or 1990s Ardbeg 30 Year Old (£1,000) were on offer, or for a lighter smoky style, this Ardmore 1987 30 Year Old was a great buy at £190.

There were of course a few Macallan 30 Year Olds with this 2023 release fetching £2,400. A Balvenie 30 Year Old sold for £1,050, while the excellently packaged Glenfarclas 30 Year Old Warehouse Edition fetched £430.

Blended Whiskies

Some of the biggest surprises from our March Whisky & Spirits auction highlights came from the blended whiskies category with some higher than expected prices achieved.

This bottle of Real McTavish, bottled in the 1950s by Ainslie and Heilbron, saw some feisty late bidding and settled on £360. This 1970s Royal Household fetched £170 while this unusual Drew’s Rare No.10 bottled under strength at 37.4%ABV sold for £130.  Eilean Na Hearadh, bottled for the Harris Hotel on the Hebridean island of the same name fetched £130, as did this well-preserved 1960s bottling of Stewart’s Cream Of The Barley Special Reserve, still in its original wrapping.

Perhaps the most curious prices among the blended whiskies were these two blends bottled for Tesco supermarket, achieving what must be an impressive profit on the original retail prices. This Tesco 8 Year Old Finest Old Matured Scotch Whisky, bottled in the 1980s, sold for £140, and a 1990s bottling of Tesco Special Reserve ended the auction on £130.

Johnnie Walker

Sticking with blended whiskies, there was plenty of choice from arguably the most famous name in blended Scotch.

The top blended lot, fetching an impressive £850, was this Johnnie Walker 50 Years of Diageo decanter, presented to staff at Diageo Kilmarnock in 2006 to celebrate 50 years of distilling at the Hill Street site. There was also a Thank You Hill Street in a Swing style bottle given to employees of the same Hill Street premises when it closed down in 2012. One of only 900 bottles, this sold for £230.

There was no shortage of choice of limited Johnnie Walker releases and just a few of our favourite examples include this colourful Black Label 12 Year Old Kushiaania (£150), the stunningly decorated Blue Label Year of the Tiger 2022 (£150) and Blue Label 200th Anniversary (£150), and this trio of the Johnnie Walker Game of Thrones releases, accompanied by a miniature tasting set, that fetched £170.

Cognac

The oldest spirits in the auction were to be found in the Cognac section with spirit dating back as far as 1865 in this Xavier De L’Estapis Grande Champagne Cognac that sold for £825. Moving to the early 20th Century there were bottles such as this 1906 Croizet Bonaparte (£750), 1914 Croizet Bonaparte (£420) and a 1928 Hine Grande Champagne Cognac that fetched £300.

Top Cognac spot was taken by a Michel Camus Royale Cognac presented in a Baccarat crystal decanter that ended on a hammer price of £1,100, closely followed by a Martell Silver Jubilee (£1,000) produced to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.

Vintage Liqueurs

With vintage cocktails remaining popular, there is no better way to find those rare ingredients than auction. You can even buy them ready mixed, such as this 1950s Old Negroni Cocktail (£320) or these Gordon’s Cocktails (£110-£210).

Inevitably, the upper end of the liqueurs was headed by Chartreuse with a 1968 Chartreuse VEP leading the way with a hammer price of £1,300. This vintage Chartreuse Yellow, bottled between 1956-1964, sold for £1,050, while a half bottle of Green Chartreuse from the same period fetched £725. This Liqueur Jaune dating from the 1920s and of similar appearance to Chartreuse fetched £525 after a lot of late interest.

Vintage Campari and Fernet continued to show strong prices with Cynar also attracting interest. One of the most intriguing lots though, was a 1950s bottling of Lillet (£675), one of the ingredients famously used in James Bond’s preferred Vesper Martini.

Roundup

In the rum category, this beautiful vintage 1960s Caroni 90 Proof Navy Rum from the popular closed distillery sold for £1,500.

If novelty decanters are your thing then we had an eclectic selection of Beam Decanters featuring vintage cars, telephones and even a Gambling Fox.

See the full March Whisky & Spirits Auction results here.

See our past auction roundups here.