The March auction is now live over at Whisky.Auction and the eagle-eyed readers amongst you might notice that we’ve had a makeover. While the website has had a refresh, all of the much-loved and carefully designed functionality, built in-house by the Whisky.Auction team from 10 years of customer feedback, will stay the same. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the changes via our customer services team.
In the meantime, here’s our five top picks for the March auction, ending from 19:30 GMT Tuesday 17 March GMT.
Dewar’s Victoria Vat Spring Cap – 1950s
Kicking off the recommendations for this month is a pleasingly old bottle from one of the most recognisable names in old blended Scotch. John Dewar began blending whisky in the 1860s and his son Tommy took the company name global later that century when he embarked on an extended sales trip ‘around the world’, focusing mainly on the US. He documented his trip in his travelogue ‘A Ramble Round the Globe’ which was published in 1894.
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Despite major setbacks in the alcohol industry, mainly prohibition and two world wars, Dewar’s Blended Scotch Whisky continued to build a solid reputation in the US. From the mid-1930s it was distributed in the US by Schenley Industries which had quickly become one of the largest liquor groups operating out of the US. This bottle from the 1950s was branded as Dewar’s ‘Victoria Vat’, the predecessor to their Ancestor offering, referring to the royal warrant the company held from Queen Victoria and subsequent monarchs.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £200-£300. Place your bids here.
Springbank 1965 – Bottled 1993
The joy, and potentially the challenge, of Springbank is that for dedicated collectors there’s always another niche bottle to find. This Springbank 1965 is no exception. It was bottled in 1993 to commemorate a charity bike ride in the Himalayan foothills, sponsored by the glazing firm Everest, which happened to also have been founded in 1965, the year the whisky was distilled. In case that wasn’t enough to make this bottle unique for collectors, the label was designed by ‘swinging sixties’ fashion designer and pioneer of the mini-skirt Mary Quant. Because…why not?!
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READ THE STORYOur valuation team expects this Springbank to reach a hammer price of £1000-£1500. Place your bids here.
Inchgower 1965 38 Year Old Bottled 2003 – Douglas Laing Old & Rare – The Platinum Selection
An often overlooked distillery and another that is mainly known for making bulk whisky for blends, Inchgower has a coastal style to its single malt whiskies, with an intense spiciness from the new make which can be perceived as salinity. As with many of these blend focused whiskies finding single malt releases, especially those that have spent this long in barrel, can be tricky but Douglas Laing certainly delivered on this 38 Year Old release which was brought to market as part of their Platinum Selection in 2003.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £600-£800. Place your bids here.
Talisker 1957 Bottled 1970s – Gordon & MacPhail
A special piece of history for Talisker fans, this whisky was distilled in the days when Talisker still had its own maltings and before the fire of 1960 which destroyed all five of the old coal-fired copper pot stills. The distillery was rebuilt as an exact replica of the original, with the old worm tubs which had been left with surprisingly little damage, and while the big changes to distillation process didn’t start to take hold until the 1970s, for collectors the whisky in this bottle represents the old, and much loved, Talisker standard. For those looking for flavour notes, it received a solid 91 points from WhiskyFun when tasted in 2018.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £2000-£2500. Place your bids here.
Laphroaig 1967 28 Year Old – 5cl
Loyal customers of Whisky.Auction might be surprised to see a miniature whisky in our monthly auctions. “Aren’t they usually to be found in the dedicated Miniatures & Memorabilia auctions?” I hear you ask?
This isn’t a mistake and you’ll be seeing more miniatures and memorabilia popping up in our monthly auctions going forward, as they’ve now been combined to ensure the miniature bottles, which are often even rarer than their standard counterparts, get an equal share of the auction limelight.
This Laphroaig 1967 28 Year Old from Signatory Vintage was one of just 250 miniature bottles released. Our valuation team expects this mini to reach a hammer price of £200-£250. Place your bids here.
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