The Whisky.Auction April auction is now live, with over 1,500 bottles to tempt your bids. With Islay in the news after the opening of Laggan Bay, the island’s 11th working distillery, I’ve stuck to this theme for April highlights, with five top Islay whiskies to place your bids on now.
The April auction is live now at www.whisky.auction, ending from 19:30 BST Tuesday 21 April 2026.
Laphroaig 10 Year Old – Bottled 1970s
I always find the wonderfully simple labels on these 1970s bottles of Laphroaig 10 Year Old aesthetically pleasing. Bottled long before the days when whiskies began to be purchased with the sole aim of being kept on a shelf as part of a collection, it was the delicious signature tarry, iodine-heavy liquid alone that encouraged purchase of Laphroaig 10 Year Old back in the 1970s. That said, we’re lucky that some of these old bottles did end up languishing in bar cabinets, as it has provided us with a great record of both design and taste profile of the more historic bottles from Laphroaig.
The Whisky.Auction valuations team expects this particular bottle to reach a hammer price of £1,300 – £1,600. You can place your bids here.
Ardbeg 1976 Single Cask 2391 Bottled 1999
A lot happened at the Ardbeg distillery while this whisky sat, maturing quietly. Five years after the cask was filled, the distillery was mothballed for the first time by owners Hiram Walker. It reopened in 1989, part of Allied Distillers, which also owned Laphroaig, but closed again in 1996 until Glenmorangie put in a rescue bid, saving the rundown old distillery from being completely dismantled. And we’re very glad they did!
This whisky, and the parcel of sherry casks filled alongside it, is often coveted as some of the best Ardbeg available and is credited by some as being a foundation stone of Ardbeg’s rise to global fame. It was selected by then-manager Stuart Thomson for its rich blackcurrant, morello cherry and Christmas pudding notes with hickory smoke, coffee and liquorice on the finish.
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The Whisky.Auction valuations team expects this whisky to reach a hammer price of £2,900 – £3,300. You can place your bids here.
Lagavulin 25 Year Old 200th Anniversary
Time for a shinier release now. This Lagavulin 25 Year Old was released to celebrate the distillery’s 200th anniversary in 2016, and has all of the names of the previous distillery managers etched onto the bottle. It’s a great piece of history from an impressive milestone for the distillery and just a quick glance at the reviews from those lucky enough to have tried the whisky itself shows that it’s certainly not just a pretty bottle. Serge Valentin at WhiskyFun scored it an impressive 92 points, describing the finish as ‘long and just perfect’.
The Whisky.Auction valuations team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £900 – £1,200. You can place your bids here.
Port Ellen 1983 27 Year Old Provenance – Bottled 2010 – McGibbon’s
Speaking of milestones and mothballing of whisky distilleries, this 27 year old Port Ellen ‘distilled in Spring 1983’ would have been amongst the final casks filled at the distillery before it turned its stills off for what was feared to be the final time on the 28 March 1983. The whisky was bottled by Douglas McGibbon & Co which had been a subsidiary of Douglas Laing since 1950. In the 2013 split between the Laing brothers, the Provenance range stayed with Douglas Laing and, last year, returned under the Douglas Laing branding with a series of 10 year olds.
But back to this Port Ellen. The Whisky.Auction valuation team expects this whisky to reach a hammer price of £300-£500. You can place your bids here.
Kilchoman 100% Islay – Inaugural Release 2011
From a phoenix distillery that is rising from the ashes of its former glory, to a much more modern whisky proposition. Kilchoman was founded in 2005 and was the first new distillery to open on the island of Islay in 124 years. It aimed to revive traditional farm distilling, growing 440 tonnes of barley each year and malting, kilning, mashing, fermenting, distilling and maturing it 100% on site. It took until 2011 for the distillery to be able to fulfill this desire, but with the inaugural launch of the Kilchoman 100% Islay in June 2011, they achieved their dream of being 100% barley to bottle.
The Whisky.Auction valuation team expects this 3 year old whisky, bottled at 50% abv, to sell for £40-£80. You can place your bids here.
