We’re kicking off 2026 at Whisky.Auction with a selection of single malts that will suit a range of budgets, from the shiniest Dalmore to the more underrated Glengoyne.
The Whisky.Auction January auction is now live, closing from 19:30 GMT Tuesday, 20 January.
Coleburn 1972 Connoisseur’s Choice Bottled 1996 – Gordon & MacPhail
Whisky lovers have a lot to thank Gordon & MacPhail for, including their unrivalled releases of rare single malts from old, workhorse distilleries such as Coleburn.
A Speyside distillery founded in 1897, Coleburn was rarely bottled as a single malt, instead providing components for famous blends such as J&G Stewart’s Usher’s blend and Johnnie Walker Red Label. The pre-2000 single malts that can be found through independent bottlers are often linked by flavour notes including citrus, apples, ginger and pepper.
The current owners of the site are in the process of building a ‘whisky resort’ with a distillery on the site to bring Coleburn whisky back to the market, but single malt purists will enjoy this bottling as a taste of distillery history.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £200 – £300. Place your bids here.
Yamazaki 1993 Private Cask Bottled 2012 – La Maison Du Whisky
When Yamazaki stopped creating the Owner’s Casks in 2010 they made the chance of picking up a private label single-cask release very low. This sherry-cask expression was a rare exception, bottled to mark the long-term relationship between Suntory and La Maison du Whisky which helped build the reputation of Japanese whisky in Europe.
The elephant on the label was said to be chosen simply because it was a copyright-free image, but it has led to this bottling being known colloquially as the Yamazaki elephant.
Our valuation team expect this release to sell for approximately £6,000 – £8,000. Place your bids here.
Glengoyne 1970 26 Year Old Vintage Reserve
Perhaps one of the most underrated Scotch whisky distilleries, Glengoyne’s famously air-dried barley and unhurried distillation process produces a gentle, sweet and fruity new make. When this whisky was distilled, the distillery itself had just become part of the Robertson & Baxter Group which led to it being rebuilt and an extra spirit still being added for increased production without needing to speed up their traditional process. Despite the care taken to produce the spirit and the work done in recent years by new owners, Ian McLeod Distillers, to spread the word about Glengoyne, it’s still sadly overlooked. This does mean some bargain prices at auction when compared to other similarly aged single malts.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £400-£600. Place your bids here.
Rosebank 1993 27 Year Old Single Cask No. 433 & 625
‘We don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone’ is a phrase heard all too often in life, and this has certainly been the case in whisky making. So many distilleries that closed in the 80s and 90s were originally used for blending stocks, but became highly sought after in the single malt renaissance from the 90s onwards. Lowland distillery Rosebank was one of the later closures, in 1993, and by the late 2010s, it had become amongst the most revered of the closed distilleries with whisky lovers hunting down single malt releases.
These very special bottlings were both distilled in 1993, matured in single casks and bottled in 2019 after Ian McLeod distillers acquired the brand and began its revival plans. The whisky itself was made using the original Rosebank stills, and these are both the first bottlings from their casks.
Our valuation team estimates that these bottles will reach a hammer price of £6,000 – £8,000. Place your bids here.
Dalmore 1973 Bottled 2007 – Cabernet Sauvignon Cask
Highland distillery Dalmore is well-known for its cask curation, focusing on wine barrels selected for the grape variety of the wine they originally held, as well as their age, the source of the wood, the places they have been kept, and many other factors. For this release, Cabernet Sauvignon barriques from Château Haut-Marbuzet, classified as Cru Bourgeois Exceptionnel, have been used to finish the whisky, sold by Dalmore as ‘the ultimate finish’.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to hit a hammer price of £1,600 – £2,000. Place your bids here.
Read the full article at Top 5 Vintage Single Malts from Whisky.Auction This January
