Sotheby’s will stage its inaugural Nightcap Wine & Spirits Festival at its Breuer building in New York from 16–19 September 2026. The whiskey highlight of the event is the Whisky & Whiskey live auction, running 3–18 September, which features The Wax Top Collection, the single largest offering of Willett Family Estate ever to come to auction at one time.
The Wax Top Collection comprises 328 bottles. It offers what Sotheby’s describes as “an exceptional opportunity to acquire some of the rarest and most sought-after bottles from one of America’s most revered whiskey labels.”
The wider sale features more than 250 additional bottles. These span Pre-Prohibition and Prohibition-era whiskeys, rare Scotch, and Japanese single malts.
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Among the collection’s highlights are Willett Family Estate Single Barrels and the sought-after “Epic Ryes.” These include Doug’s Green Ink (est. $13,000–15,000/£9,700–11,200 each) and Iron Fist and Velvet Glove (est. $10,000–15,000/£7,500–11,200 each).
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The sale also features the 4/6/1993 vintage Willett Family Estate barrels. Sotheby’s calls this “a mythical run of high-age-statement bottlings that are exceptionally well known among Willett collectors.”
Highlights of that run include the Willett Family Estate Single Barrel Bourbon “The Wheated Patriot” 21 Year Old (est. $7,000–9,000/£5,200–6,700). Several Wheated A, B and C Barrels that have never previously appeared at auction are also offered, including the C70A (est. $7,000–10,000/£5,200–7,500).
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READ THE STORYA standout lot is an A.H. Hirsch Reserve 18 Year Old 46.5% ABV 1974 (est. $20,000–30,000/£14,900–22,400). All aged Hirsch was distilled in 1974, a landmark vintage for collectors.
The sale also includes a 21-bottle single-owner collection titled “Acquired from The National Distillers Museum Collection,” with all proceeds benefiting World Central Kitchen. Its highlights include a Mount Vernon Rye 1874 (est. $4,000–6,000/£3,000–4,500).
A Bowmore ARC-54 Year Old 44.3% ABV 1968 (est. $40,000–60,000/£29,900–44,800) will also be offered, with proceeds benefiting The Foundation of Hope. The whisky was aged for more than half a century in Bowmore’s No. 1 Vaults.
The auction follows a record first half of 2026 for Sotheby’s Wine & Spirits, which generated $49.25 million in sales. The year began with The Great American Whiskey Collection, which totaled $2.5 million, setting a record for the most valuable American whiskey collection ever sold at auction.
