For many, whisky is a real passion. The act of slowly pouring it into a special tumbler and then enjoying the amber liquid which produces a slow and intoxicating heat has become an art and subsequently produced a following of collectors who seek to find the rarest bottles.
Whisky enthusiasts will be pleased to know that an epic auction will soon take place, featuring the finest bottles on the market. Here one will find one of the most expensive bottles in the world, with a price that exceeds £1 million. The auction will be handled online by Whisky Auctioneer, a market leader and trusted authority for liquor buying and selling. With prices ranging from a few thousand to over £1 million and, with almost 2,000 bottles at auction, the hammer will certainly break more than one record.
The 'Perfect Collection' sale will be held between 12-22 February on WhiskyAuctioneer.com and will offer the most coveted and expensive single malts in the world. The auction completes the second part of the collection, initially launched last April and postponed following a cyber attack. The first part took place in February 2020 and reached a total of over £3.2 million, also making Whisky Auctioneer the first online auction house to sell a bottle for seven figures.
The highlight of the auction is represented by the Macallan 1926 Fine and Rare 60 Year Old, the most expensive bottle of whisky in the world, whose estimate is around £1-1.2 million. This very rare bottle represents one of only fourteen in the world with the iconic Fine and Rare label. Known to contain the distillate extracted from a special cask (the 'sacred cask' Cask #263) dating to the years of American Prohibition (1920-33), it is expected to sell for well over a million.
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Whisky expert Angus MacRaild said the bottling status of these spirits has more to do with art than anything else. And, indeed, these bottles are true artworks, created with love and devotion. Take, for example, the first edition of the legendary Black Bowmore – distilled in 1964 and aged in Oloroso sherry casks for 29 years before being put on the market. Only 2,000 bottles of this precious liquid were produced and now only a few are left. With a unique flavour intensity and a perfect balance of fruit, peat and potency, this whisky is considered legendary among collectors and aficionados.
Black Bowmore is not just a whisky but a real product of the history of the spirit, which represents a turning point for single malts. In the 1990s it was first distributed by Oddbins in the UK, at a time when whisky was beginning to replace cognac as an alcoholic beverage served after dinner. People in those years were willing to pay the sum of £120 for a bottle, which was then considered quite pricey. The estimated price in this auction is £12,000-17,000.
Also worth keeping an eye on is the Balvenie 1937 Pure Malt 50 Year Old, whose estimate is £18,000-23,000. This is an incredibly rare single malt whisky presented in its classic wooden box. At its bottling in 1987 only 500 bottles were produced, 140 of which were exported directly to the Japanese market. The whisky has body, as well as a sweetness and a richness of taste that only spirits of this age can confer.
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Among the marvels of the auction is an incredibly rare bottle of Bowmore bottled under the Largiemeanoch label for The Howgate Wine Co Ltd., Cumberland Street, Edinburgh. This is a legendary bottle of whisky, distilled in Bowmore in 1967 and matured in the finest sherry barrels #2655/6/7 for 12 years. It is not often that this majestic whisky is put up for auction; this lot represents a mythical and exceptionally rare bottle, an iconic example of Bowmore in its glory years.
The 'Perfect Collection' was put together by the late American businessman and philanthropist, Richard Gooding, who spent over two decades of his life collecting whisky from almost every Scottish distillery in order to create the perfect collection.
Even those who aren't big whisky drinkers should know that whisky bottles are good investments and the spirit is seeing an increase in demand with value linked to the rarity of the liquid. According to recent data, rare whisky has seen a huge appreciation in value over the past decade, surpassing more traditional capital goods such as cars and works of art.
Whisky Auctioneer founder Iain McClune describes this collection of whisky bottles as "nothing short of extraordinary". And we at Barnebys are confident that – by awakening the interest among collectors, investors and whisky lovers from all over the world – this surprising selection will definitely inebriate spirits.
