Perfect Whisky Collection Sells for More Than $9 Million at Auction

by Hannah Kanik
March 19, 2021

A collection of 3,900 bottles sold for $9,100,000 at an auction late last month, making it the highest value private collection ever sold on the secondary market.

Known as the “Perfect Collection,” the auction was hosted in two parts by market leaders Whisky Auctioneer due to the scale of the auctioneer’s whisky library. Mr. Gooding, the former owner of all this whisky, is a man who dedicated two decades of his life in pursuit of the perfect collection.

More than 1,500 bidders hailing from 54 countries battled it out for 1,900 lots of some of exciting whiskies. A The Macallan 1926 Fine & Rare 60-Year-Old was the most expensive bottle in the collection, selling for $1.4 million. This also marked the first time a single bottle of whisky had sold at an online-only auction for one million pounds.

Another bottle, The Macallan 1926 Valerio Adami 60-year-old, sold for $1 million. There were multiple high-value sales and world records achieved during the auction as well.

The accessibility of the online platform likely made the auction more participated in, and therefore more competitive.

“This auction was solely dedicated to one collector’s magnificent library of whisky – a man who was dedicated to building The Perfect Collection. As enthusiasts of whisky ourselves, we knew that this collection deserved its own spotlight to allow us to truly convey the rarity and sheer scale of something so historic,“ Iain McClune, founder of Whisky Auctioneer, said in a prepared statement.

“The results from The Perfect Collection clearly show that our auction model is significantly shaking up the traditional secondary market,” McClune added. “By bringing transparency, true expertise and engaging content to our customers we are offering something fresh, yet accessible to those across the globe interested in whisky.”

There were also record prices for historic malts from Scotland’s ‘lost’ distilleries such as Dallas Dhu, which showed the surge in interest when it comes to the history and influence of rare bottlings.