Beyond the Label: The 5 Most Interesting Scotch Bottles to Watch at Auction in February

Another month and another excellent selection of whiskies to choose from in the February auction over at www.whisky.auction.

The auction is live now, ending from 19:30 GMT Tuesday 17 February.

Talisker 1977 35 Year Old Special Releases 2012

I’ve noticed that I write about Diageo’s Special Releases often, but rarely choose one as a whisky highlight, so I’m kicking off the recommendations from our February auction by remedying this. 

When it was launched in 2012, this was the oldest Talisker ever released, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Serge at WhiskyFun described it as having ‘an elegant fullness’, with a ‘je ne sais quoi that the others don’t quite have’. By this, he meant the other releases that year, which, in some cases, may have been more appealing to a collector, such as the 35 year old Brora and the 32 year old Port Ellen. Serge backed this up by scoring this Talisker a fabulous 94 points. For readers whose budget for drinking whisky might stretch to the expected hammer price of £1000-£1300, I’d thoroughly recommend cracking this one open! 

Kinloch’s K22 10 Year Old Special Reserve

As this whisky was bottled 100 years ago, we can certainly forgive its slightly shabby appearance. Not only is it an impressively old bottle, it also tells an interesting story that sheds light on why we often find whisky bottled at 40% ABV today.

Before the outbreak of the First World War, whisky tended to be bottled at around 15-22 ‘under proof’, or 44.6%-48.6% ABV. During the war, in an attempt to boost worker’s productivity, teetotal prime minister David Lloyd George capped the maximum strength of whisky at 25 under proof (42.8% ABV) in 1916, reduced to 30 under proof (40% ABV) in 1917 and, briefly, 40 under proof (34.3% ABV) in 1919 when available grain levels were also critically low. While these restrictions were lifted in 1920, duty was raised to such an extent that the financial burden for distillers making whisky above 40% ABV became too high, especially as they were banned from passing on the cost increases, and therefore 40% ABV became standard. 

Despite the costs, Charles Kinloch & Co were determined to keep their whisky at the old standards, stubbornly sticking to 22 under proof and marketing their premium whisky as ‘pre-war whisky at pre-war strength’. It’s an excellent bottle for any whisky historian looking to add to their collection. 

Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £300-£500

Linlithgow 1982 Carn Mor Bottled 2008 – Celebration Of The Cask

This whisky was distilled just one year before Linlithgow, or St Magdalene, distillery closed its doors forever; a casualty of the 1980s ‘whisky loch’. It was owned by DCL, now Diageo, which stored or sold the remaining casks for blending or bottling in future releases. 

This release, which scored an excellent 92 points when reviewed by Serge Valentin of WhiskyFun back in 2013, was bottled almost 26 years later under the Celebration of the Cask range by family-owned company Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers.

Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £400-£600

Rosebank 21 Year Old Rosebank Roses Edition VII – Enchantment

Despite shutting its doors in 1993, Rosebank had built a strong reputation amongst whisky lovers long before it was announced in 2017 that Ian MacLeod Distillers would be opening the distillery once more. Diageo had continued to release Rosebank whisky as part of its Special Releases and independent bottlers continued to bottle casks of the old whisky. It was 2016 when Elixir Distillers announced that it would be releasing its collectable ‘Rosebank Roses’ Series; a set of 21 year old bottlings with love at their core. 

This whisky – Enchantment – was the final release in the set and was released on Valentine’s Day 2023. 

Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £700-£900

Glenfiddich 26 Year Old COP26 Cask 30863

Moving to a more modern release for my final pick, this 26 year old Glenfiddich was bottled in 2021 to commemorate COP26, the 26th UN climate action conference which was held in Glasgow. It highlighted Glenfiddich’s commitment to reducing its climate impact as it launched ‘fuelled by Glenfiddich’, a closed-loop system by with Glenfiddich converts its production waste – spent grains and liquid residues – into Ultra-Low Carbon Fuel (ULCF) to power its transportation trucks. Since 2021, parent company William Grant has continued to roll out this new technology and plans to eventually share it with the wider Scotch Whisky industry to support the Scotch Whisky Association’s goal for its members to fully decarbonise direct operations by 2040. 

Another bottle to mark a historic occasion in any whisky collection.

Our valuations team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £600-£900