Our height of summer auction is upon us, but that hasn’t prevented some dark and rich sherry bombs from creeping into the recommendations from the August Whisky & Spirits auction at Whisky.Auction.
Live now, ending Tuesday 19 August at 19:30 BST, this auction has some special old bottlings that we’d delight in having as part of our whisky collections! Here are just some of the highlights.
Macallan 1993 26 Year Old
This Macallan was the first in a ‘mini-series’ of small batch whiskies selected by David Boyd, ex-chief blender for Aberlour, amongst other malts, for Stirling-based retailer The Scottish Gantry.
The solid glass decanter is presented in an engraved box, containing a whisky which matured in a single cask before being finished in an Oloroso sherry barrel and bottled in November 2019.
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For Macallan collectors looking for a rare addition to their collection, or simply a scotch whisky lover looking for a real treat, at one of just 201 bottles, this will be a great buy for the winning bidder.
Our valuation team has valued this bottle at between £1,000 – £1,400. You can place your bid here.
Linkwood 1939 43 Year Old Gordon McPhail
No one does beautiful old single malts quite like Gordon & Macphail, whose ageing cellars are what scotch whisky dreams are made of! In my opinion, it’s the simple labels and unremarkable glass bottles that leave the whisky to do the talking, which really stand out at auction, and this bottle is no exception.
Distilled in 1939, a few years after the distillery fell into the hands of DCL (now Diageo), this whisky was aged for 43 years before being bottled by Gordon & Macphail, who held the license to bottle the Linkwood brand.
This is one of the many whiskies that have seen fluctuations in market price in recent months, but our valuation team predicts it will reach a hammer price of between £800-£1,300. Bid on this bottle here.
John Jameson & Son’s Redbreast 12 Year Old
A great piece of Irish whiskey history, this Redbreast was bottled in the mid-late 1970s when the brand was still owned by Gilbey’s of Ireland. Gilbey’s of Ireland had an agreement with John Jameson & Sons, who supplied them with whiskey which they bottled under several brand names, including Castle Grand JJ Ten Year Old, of which the JJ stood for John Jameson. The first reference to ‘Redbreast’ came in 1912, and Gilbey’s continued to work with Jameson’s for years to come.
In 1966, the downturn in fortunes for Irish whiskey led Jameson’s to merge with Cork Distillers and John Power to form Irish Distillers Ltd. (IDL), eventually resulting in an end to the long-held agreement between Gilbey’s and Jameson’s. They eventually sold the Redbreast brand to IDL in 1986.
Another bottle that has been fluctuating in value, our valuations team expects the Redbreast to reach a hammer price of £300-£500. Bid on this Irish whiskey gem here.
Bowmore Darkest Bottled 2000s – Sherry Cask Finish
An old favourite of early-2000s Bowmore fans, this bottle is the original Bowmore Darkest No Age Statement, which was sold between 1999 and 2007 before being replaced with a 15-year-old expression.
It’s a tasty sherried dram that has been described by The Whisky Exchange as ‘as close in style to the legendary Black Bowmore as most of us mere mortals will be able to taste’.
Our valuations team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price between £150-£250. Place your bids here.
Macallan 30 Year Old Sherry Oak
Top and tailing this month’s auction picks with Macallan, this 30-year-old was the final edition in the Sherry Oak collection, which was soon replaced by the Macallan Fine Oak series instead.
As is often the case, discontinuing this series made the bottles even more collectible as we moved into the new millennium and people reminisced about their favourite old bottlings.
Today, our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of around £4,000. You can bid on this iconic Macallan whisky here.
