We take a look around some of the highlights from our September Whisky & Spirits Auction.
Macallan
This month’s auction contained no shortage of mouth watering malts and there was plenty of Macallan to choose from. The top lot title for this month was this Macallan 1946 52 Year Old Select Reserve, fetching £11,600. Not far behind were a number of other fine Macallan bottlings such as the Macallan 2008 Distil Your World London Edition (sold for £11,000), this Macallan 1937, bottled by Gordon & MacPhail (sold for £7,800), a Macallan 30 Year Old Sherry Oak (£7,200), and this Macallan Royal Marriage, bottled in 2011 to celebrate the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton (sold for £5,400).
Mature Malts
Staying in Speyside, we had a wonderful decanter of Mortlach 1951 Private Collection bottled by Gordon & MacPhail in 2014 at 63 years of age. One of only 61 decanters released, this fetched £6,400. There were plenty other mature whiskies on offer from across Scotland. This Bowmore 1964 Black Bowmore second edition, bottled in 1994 and one of only 2000 bottles released fetched £8000, while from the same distillery, a couple of the more recently released Bowmore 1988 31 Year Old Timeless Series sold for £2,300 and £2,000 respectively.
Keeping with smoky island malts, from Skye, this bottle of Secret Stills Talisker 1955 50 Year Old, bottled in 2005 by Gordon & MacPhail for their Secret Stills series, attracted plenty of attention and late bidding, eventually ending on £3,400. Other indie bottlings of note included a Springbank 1969 27 Year Old single cask from Signatory Vintage (£2,100) and a Highland Park 1967 42 Year Old single cask from John Scott (£1,950).
Distillers’ Charity Bottle
This month’s sale featured a special bottle raising money for a very worthwhile charity. This gorgeous decanter of Glen Grant Private Collection 1952 was donated by Gordon & MacPhail to Chris Porter to raise money for the Distillers’ Charity in celebration of the 350th anniversary of The Worshipful Company Of Distillers. The decanter was initially released to commemorate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The whisky was filled into a first fill sherry butt on 26 January 1952 and matured for 70 years before bottling in 2022 on 6 February, the same date as the Queen’s accession to the throne. Bidding ended on a hammer price of £10,600.
Japanese Whisky
September’s auction saw a bumper Japanese whisky category with some stunning bottles from Yamazaki, Karuizawa, Hibiki and Chichibu amongst others. This Yamazaki 25 Year Old fetched £8,600 while there were multiple cask finishes and limited editions from the distillery including various Yamazaki Sherry Cask and Yamazaki Mizunara Cask releases fetching as much as £4,500 for the Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013 Release.
From Chichibu, the highlight of the auction was the beautifully labelled Chichibu 2011 Red Wine Cask 5253, bottled exclusively in 2018 for London’s Sexy Fish restaurant, whose bar is home to the world’s largest Japanese whisky collection. Karuizawa was represented by a range of releases from the final two vintages of the distillery, 1999 and 2000, selling for between £3,400 to £4,100.
Roundup
If decadent decanters are your thing then so is Cognac. Our top lots in the category included this opulent Imperial Collection 40 Year Old Premier Cru Grande Champagne Cognac, presented in a gold Faberge egg (sold for £2,200) and not one but two of the equally spectacular Frapin Cuvee 1888 crystal decanters with gold spiral thread (£1,900 each). For connoisseurs of vintage liqueurs, there was this bottle of Chartreuse Yellow produced in Tarragona, Spain, between 1912-1913 sold for £3,900.
See the full auction results here.
The Whisky Show
If you like what you see in the auction, we will be at The Whisky Show in London’s Old Billingsgate between the 30 September and 2 October 2022 where you will be able to try a variety of old and rare whiskies. See a taster of the amazing drams we will be pouring.
