For many, whiskey is a real passion. The act of pouring it slowly into a special tumbler and then enjoying the amber liquid which produces a slow and intoxicating heat has become an art and produced a following of collectors who seek to find the rarest bottles.
Whiskey 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 pounds and with almost 2,000 bottles at auction, the hammer will certainly break more than one record.
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The "Perfect Collection" sale will be held between February 12 and 22 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 ($4.3 million), making Whisky Auctioneer the first online auction house to sell a bottle for seven figures at $1.9 million.
The highlight of the auction is certainly represented by the Macallan 1926 Fine and Rare 60 Year Old, the most expensive bottle of whiskey in the world, whose estimate is around £1-1.2 million ($1.3-1.6 million). This very rare bottle represents one of only 14 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.
Whiskey 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 flavor intensity and a perfect balance of fruit, peat and potency, this whiskey is considered legendary among whiskey collectors and aficionados.
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Black Bowmore is not just a whiskey 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 whiskey 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 pricy. The estimated price in this auction is £12,000-17,000 ($16,000-23,000).
Also worth keeping an eye on is the Balvenie 1937 Pure Malt 50 Year Old, whose estimate is £18,000-23,000 ($25,000-31,000). This is an incredibly rare single malt whiskey 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 whiskey 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 whiskey, 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 whiskey 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 whiskey from almost every Scottish distillery in order to create the perfect collection.
Even those who aren't big whiskey drinkers should know that whiskey 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 whiskey has seen a huge appreciation in value over the past decade, surpassing more traditional capital goods such as cars and works of art.
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Whisky Auctioneer founder Iain McClune describes this collection of whiskey bottles as "nothing short of extraordinary". And we at Barnebys are confident that, by awakening the interest among collectors, investors and whiskey lovers from all over the world, this surprising selection will definitely inebriate spirits.
