Remember that high end Karuizawa whisky auction we wrote about late last month which was to be held in Scotland by Whisky Auctioneer? It has now happened, and word is the closing bids in combination easily blew away estimates of how much the 296 bottles would net once the gavel fell. All total we are looking at close to a cool $1 million USD.
The Karuizawa whisky collection ended up selling in total for £770,000, or a little over $986,000 USD. This was far and away above the around $600,000 USD estimate before bidding began. These bottles, all heralding from one European collector who built this hoard up over a decade, drew a total of over 5,000 bids. 89 buyers from 19 different countries walked away with at least one bottle when it was all said and done.
One bottle in particular which stood out for those watching this auction was a Karuizawa 1960. This 52-year-old whisky, which was just one of 41 released for £12,000 in 2013, sold for £100,100, or close to $130,000 USD. The last time one of these came to auction, back in 2015, it fetched nearly $118,000 USD, so the value of this expression certainly has not slipped at all.
“I don’t think we ever expected to have this much interest in our collection of Karuizawa, regardless of its rarity and collectability,” said Iain McClune, founder of Whisky Auctioneer, in a prepared statement. “Despite being a UK-based auction, only 37 of these bottles will remain on our shores. The international profile of the winning bids truly underline the global appeal of rare whisky at the moment, with these bottles soon heading off to 19 different countries, located across four different continents.”
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