Despite the summer holidays looming, the quality of our auctions hasn’t slowed one bit, with some great bottles for collectors and drinkers alike available for bids this week. This month, our highlights are dominated by our favourite traditional Scotch whisky distilleries.
The Whisky.Auction July auction is live now, closing at 19:30 BST on Tuesday, 22 July.
Caol Ila 1968 20 Year Old Bottled 1988 – Intertrade – 43% ABV
For Caol Ila fans looking for a slice of history, this whisky was distilled in the old Caol Ila Distillery, which had just two stills. The distillery was demolished and replaced by a larger, six-still site in 1972, which made the Caol Ila Distillery the largest whisky producer on Islay.
In those days, Caol Ila was mostly used to fill the bottling requirements for Johnnie Walker, so it’s the independent bottlers that we have to thank for the surviving old releases. In this case, Intertrade was a prominent Italian Independent bottler and importer in the 1980s, selecting casks from Gordon & Macphail stock to bottle and ship to Italy.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £2,000-£2,500.
Place your bids here.
Glenlivet (Minmore) 1972 24 Year Old Bottled 1996 – 51.8% ABV
Minmore is the name of the farm site bought by George Smith, son of the founder of The Glenlivet Distillery, in 1858, where he built a new, larger distillery than the one he had inherited from his father.
It’s a term that independent bottler Cadenhead’s tends to use on its releases from the distillery for reasons unknown to me, other than perhaps for the nice touch of historic reference it adds to the bottles.
Our valuation team predicts a hammer price of £200 – £300 for this bottle.
You can place your bids for this bottle here.
Bowmore 8 Year Old Bottled 1970s – Sherriff’s x12 – 40% ABV
A great find for a real Bowmore lover, this case of Bowmore 8 Year Old is a coveted release from the end of what is commonly thought of as the golden age of Bowmore before the tropical fruit and subtle smoke made way for a more perfumed, lavender aroma that has proved to be like Marmite to whisky lovers.
The 12 bottles are still in their original cardboard box, with original bottle boxes and neck tags telling a short history of the distillery, too.
£12,000 – £15,000 – Don’t miss out on bidding for these awesome bottles here.
Macallan 50 Year Old In Lalique First Edition – Bottle Number 3 – 46% ABV
Released in 2005, this beautifully crafted decanter of Macallan was limited to just 470 worldwide. This bottle is number three and, we’re told, it was the first numbered bottle available to be purchased by the public after the distillery kept back the first two.
The whisky itself is a 50 year old single malt with an ‘all encompassing and aromatic’ palate with notes of dark prunes and plain chocolate. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one to see if it hits its reserve as our valuation team expects it to reach a hammer price of between £40,000 – £60,000.
If you are a Macallan collector, this one is not to be missed.
Ardbeg 1967 28 Year Old – Signatory Vintage – 53.2% ABV
Our final recommendation for our July auction caused great excitement in the auction room. It’s a delicious Ardbeg matured in a dark oloroso butt for 28 years to extract all of those great flavours. The colour gives away the richness of the whisky inside.
Interestingly, while this is cask 574, Signatory also bottled cask 575 – a pale oloroso butt – at the same time. Both whiskies were distilled on the same day, spent the same amount of time in their sherry casks, and were bottled on the same day, too. A great find for collectors!
Our team has valued this bottle at £3,000 – £4,000. Place your bids on this Ardbeg rarity here.
Read the full article at Top 5 Whisky.Auction Picks For Collectors This July
