The old record for the most expensive bottle of Brora whisky was £54,450. When the Brora Iris sold for £400,000 ($483,080) in November 2023 it easily became the most expensive bottle of whisky from the Brora distillery.
The pre-sale estimate for the one-of one bottle was £200,000 to £400,000, which is a big range. By hitting the top estimate the new record was a huge step up—even when you adjust for the fact Iris was a magnum. It was also well above the “standard” market price for a 50 year old whisky. So we thought we’d have a look at the Brora Iris to see how you go about creating record setting prices.
A One-Of-One Limited Edition Brora
To begin with, let’s have a look at the credentials of the whisky. The Brora 50 year old Iris decanter was created exclusively for the Distillers One-Of-One Charity auction, which was hosted to raise money for the Youth Action Fund. It is the oldest age statement Brora released by the distillery by a full decade, and hails from the infamous 1972 batch of casks.
Prior to the charity auction, the previous record was held by the, as then, oldest officially released Brora; a 40-year-old decanter that was also distilled in 1972 and first released in 2014. In 2021 the 40-year-old decanter sold for £54,450, also at Sotheby’s.
In 2018 Diageo announced they were reopening Brora and ceased their annual releases series from the distillery. The distillery finally restarted producing whisky in 2021 and the launch of the new distillery likely has some impact on their choice to do a full decade jump in the oldest age statement available.
That’s because the ability to release older age statement whiskies are a key factor in premiumisation. For a technically new distillery to be able to release 50 year old whiskies while they wait for their first distillate gives Brora a unique marketing position. It enables Diageo to position it as a premium whisky from the outset.
The reality is that age alone isn’t always enough to guarantee you the top spot. If you want proof look at the £2.2 million 60-year-old Macallan versus the 81-year old The Reach (the oldest whisky in the world) that you can pick up for just £212,500. In truth it is some combination factors that Brora have perfected in order to generate the record setting price.
1972 Is The Best Year For Brora
The Brora 40 Year Old Decanter still holds the record on renowned review site Whisky Fun as the highest rated Brora, at 98 points. Iris scored an equally impressive 96 points. That score ties Iris in second place, with two other 1972 vintages.
Most of the time whisky is not like wine, with vintages meaning little for expected quality and price. Often this is simply because not many distilleries release whisky as specific vintages, although maybe it shows that we should pay more attention to vintages in the whisky industry?
Brora 1972 is somewhat of an exception to this as it is consistently the best rated and most expensive vintage released by the distillery.
Is It Actually A Record?
When compiling records for most expensive bottles of whisky (or whiskey) at Mark Littler LTD we tend to exclude both magnums and charity auctions. We do this for consistency, firstly because magnums are bigger than standard bottles, which makes comparing them to prices for standard bottles unfair. Secondly, charity auctions tend to generate higher results (for reasons we’ll run through below).
This is the oldest Brora by a significant margin so we wanted to discuss the result, however first we wanted to check whether it was actually a record?
Iris is the equivalent of more than two standard bottles. If we adjust the price for size, we get an equivalent price of around £186,600 for a standard 70cl bottle. The previous record was £54,450, so Iris would still set a new record by some margin. What we can’t adjust for is the effect of charity auctions.
How Does The Result Compare?
Iris’ pre-sale estimate at the Distiller’s One Of One 2023 auction was £200,000 to £400,000 and even the lower end of the estimate is still right at the top of what we would expect for a 50-year-old release. But what do we mean by that?
At the lower estimate of £200,000, adjusting for a single bottle gives an equivalent value of around £93,000. Based on the premium end of the market, for a 50-year-old whisky £50,000 to £90,000 is more in line with what we might expect, even for modern limited edition releases.
So, how do you get to more than double the standard market rate for a 50 year old?
You make the whisky more than simply whisky—usually through an art collaboration—and you put that whisky-art in a charity auction.
Charity Auctions
Let’s be clear, charity auctions are fantastic for raising money. Partly because they are renowned for generating incredible results for the charities in question. What they are not good for, is generating results that are that relevant in terms of records.
Often buyers are willing to bid more for bottles in charity auctions, and this is for a couple of reasons. It’s not unusual for bottles in charity auctions to come with extra experiences such as distillery tours, which means the prices achieved don’t just reflect the value of the whisky itself. In addition, charity donations can attract tax relief, so there is an added incentive for bidders to go high. The combination of getting something that they want with added exclusive benefits, donating to charity and paying less tax can generate results that are way above what we would expect to see elsewhere.
Big results and charitable donations are also beneficial for the reputation of the distillery who donates them. Distilleries often seem to save their most impressive whiskies and collaborations for charitable releases. This is likely because records are more likely to produce headline grabbing results, generating more press outreach and more brand association with high prices.
For the Brora Iris that does mean we would still exclude it from any official results tables. But it doesn’t stop us from looking at it as a standalone result because it is still more than double the standard market price for a premium 50 year old.
Art Makes The Difference For Premium Whisky
The use of art by brands to generate value is a well documented phenomena. It began in the twentieth century with the likes of Elsa Schiaparelli’s work with Salvador Dalí for her lobster dress. One of the best known instances (and one that arguably worked too well) is Louis Vitton’s Multicolor Monogram Series, which was a collaboration with Japanese pop artist, Takashi Murakami.
“Artification” is the process of transforming something into art. It is a well documented tool within the premium sector; because art has a value above its core material value, by turning an object into art you can increase the value of that object.
In the whisky world the use of art has become almost standard practice. Art is used to elevate bottles from the ordinary to the extraordinary and provide appeal to consumers at all levels in a highly saturated market. The practice is so common that more and more elaborate collaborations are needed at the highest end.
You only need to look at the incredible line up of the Distiller’s One-Of-One auction to see what we mean; from Bow Wave to Bowmore, the bottles that achieved the records were all meticulously designed presentations. Not to mention newer releases like the Dalmore Luminary and Glenmorangie 23 year old.
The Brora Iris was an impressive statement of world-class whisky and design. Every aspect of the presentation had been considered to give layers of meaning and justification to the object, and estimate. As Sotheby’s explain on their auction listing, “The stunning work of art represents the eye of a Scottish Wildcat; the highly elusive native of the Scottish Highlands that is the emblem of Brora Distillery. A collaboration by a number of highly skilled artists and craftspeople, […] the stone sculpture has been hewn from the same limestone that was used to build Brora Distillery, by one of Scotland’s finest sculptor’s and artists Michelle De Bruin. Finally, it is crowned by a bronze wildcat figure, which acts as a key to the decanter, cast by one of the UK’s leading animalier sculptors, Jonathan Knight.”
The lot description for the Iris lends almost as much space to the nature of the art (109 words) as it does to the whisky (123). Two artists, both leaders in their field, have been commissioned to elevate the Iris above mere whisky, and into the world of art. Even the type of stone used is an enhancement of the unique connection to the distillery that the potential purchaser can own.
We would argue that while the age and quality of the whisky is clearly unequaled, it is the art that has pushed the value of this bottle above that of its peers.
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So while we would still technically leave the Brora Iris out of our results tables, it doesn’t stop us from also appreciating it as an incredible whisky and stunning work of art. One which achieved a fantastic price for a good cause.
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