It’s a new year and Whisky.Auction is kicking off 2025 with an auction packed with stunning bottles that are perfect for cracking open or adding to collections worldwide. This month’s selection is sure to excite whisky enthusiasts, offering a range of rare and remarkable options to suit all tastes and interests.
For 2025, we’ve shifted our auctions to the middle of the month, with the January auction running live from 12 January until 19:30 GMT on Tuesday, 21 January. Here are my top five whiskies to watch this month—bottles that truly stand out in this exceptional lineup.
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Compass Box Hedonism Inaugural Batch
When John Glaser stumbled into a brand manager role at Johnnie Walker New York in 1994 he was an unlikely candidate for the person who would redefine blended whisky in the 21st century – mainly because he was actually trying to get a job in wine!
Glaser launched Compass Box, a producer of blended scotch whiskies, in 2000 at a time when whisky sales were sluggish and blended whiskies were often overlooked as the ‘poor relation’ to single malt scotch.
Even more contrarily, he launched with this bottle – Hedonism – a blended grain whisky because, in his own words which were also printed on the heartfelt back label, “most people think of them as “filler” whiskies in the well-known commercial blends, but this is far from the truth…the best grain whiskies…are some of the silkiest, sweetest, most mouth-wateringly delicious whiskies in the world’.
Our valuations team expects this bottle from the inaugural batch of Hedonism to achieve a hammer price of £700-£1,000. You can place your bids here.
Hillside 1970 25 Year Old Rare Malts Selection
Not only is Hillside, or Glenesk, or Montrose, known as the distillery with the most name changes in history, but it also swapped from distilling malt whisky to grain whisky before the distillery was sadly demolished, with the location now being used by Diageo purely as a maltings.
Single malt bottlings of Hillside are particularly rare, so this bottle from the Rare Malts Selection is an excellent find for history-loving whisky collectors with a passion for the weird and wonderful! The whisky itself is known to be clean and fresh with underlying cereal notes and a little apple.
Our valuations team expects this to sell for £350 – £500. You can bid on this bottle now.
The Lakes Distillery Whiskymaker’s Reserve Complete Set No. 1-7
The Whiskymaker’s Reserve series from The Lakes charts the evolution of The Lakes whisky towards their ‘sherry-led, wood forward’ house style. The full set is available to add to your collection in our January auction. The first bottling in the series was released in 2019 with six further expressions released at strategic intervals over the following five years. During this time the whiskies have been greatly received, with No. 4 winning ‘World’s Best Single Malt’ at the 2022 World Whisky Awards. As the distillery starts on its next chapter under new ownership, the set is a chance to own part of the brand’s history. We’re interested in seeing where the distillery goes next!
We expect this set to achieve £1,500 – £2,000 at auction. Place your bids now at Whisky.Auction.
Macallan 21 Year Old The Savoy Collection Edition 1
In 2013, the prestigious Savoy Hotel in London delved back into its history and relaunched The Savoy Collection, a run of bottlings made especially for customers of the hotel to drink, enjoy and take part.
This Macallan 21 Year Old was part of this exclusive launch, reflecting The Savoy’s history of being a great spot for whisky drinkers. The cask was selected by Whisky.Auction and The Whisky Exchange founder Sukhinder Singh from his private reserve stock, and just 121 hand-numbered bottles were produced, of which this is bottle 57.
This bottle is valued by our valuation team at £1,500 – £2,000. Bid now on this piece of Savoy history!
Dalmore 12 Year Old Duncan Macbeth & Co. Ltd.
This Dalmore was bottled in the 1960s, a time of transition for the distillery when it merged with Whyte & Mackay. The whisky inside, therefore, was distilled prior to the merger, and bottled by ‘malt whisky merchants and exporters’ Duncan Macbeth & Co Ltd alongside an 8 year old and a 12 year old expression.
These were actually officially distillery bottlings, as Duncan Macbeth & Co were a subsidiary of previous Dalmore owners Mackenzie Brothers Dalmore Ltd, all of which were incorporated into Whyte & Mackay during the merger.
We expect this bottle to reach £500-£800 in our January auction. Place your bids here.
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Whisky.Auction January Auction
The January auction is now live at Whisky.Auction and will end on January 21st, 2025. As well as the picks above, there are numerous incredible bottles on offer. You can browse the auction catalogue here.
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