Andy Simpson’s Weekly Whisky Auction Watch 09.01.2014
It seems we’re starting 2014 off with a bang as far as whisky values go. 2013 was a good year if you hold a collection of rare and/or old single malt Scotch and the first Scotch Whisky Auction of the New Year looks to be continuing the positive theme.
A bottle of Aberlour 1966 vintage kicked off the new records when it sold for £500. In 2008 you’d have picked one up for exactly half that amount.
While values for some of the larger release, younger and NAS bottles of Ardbeg are seeing a stabilisation of values, the older single casks continue to perform well. A bottle of 1976 vintage from cask number 2395 (Japanese exclusive bottling) sold for £2,100. The last time this sold at auction in the UK was in 2011 when it reached £900.
Arran bottles are continuing their general upwards trend in values with the vast majority of the older single casks now selling for around the £80-£100 mark. Two years ago these were selling for £40-£50. The most notable Arran bottle was one of 200 released for the 2011 open day, which finished on £420. Soon after the 2011 open day, when the first bottles hit the open market, they were selling for just £100.
Read the last whisky watch here
Balvenie’s Craftsmen’s ‘The Cooper’ release was reported to be the first of a series of bottles under the Craftsmen’s banner. Since this first release nothing else has been forthcoming and it’s looking more and more like this is a one off. As the market starts to react to this, values are pushing further north. Two bottles sold for £350 and £370, showing remarkable gains over the original £65 retail price.
If anyone in the UK has a whisky loving penpal in the US, I suggest you lean on that relationship and request they get you a bottle of Balvenie Tun 1401 batch 9. This US exclusive saw its debut at SWA and sold for an impressive £540.
Bottles from many silent distilleries were in high demand and we saw a significant number of new records for older, independently bottled releases – Douglas Laings Platinum selection 1975 35-year-old from Banff sold for £300; these were £160 as recently as 2012. A Duncan Taylor 1981 25-year-old Brora sold for £410; these were selling for just £120 in 2012. A Cadenheads bottled Millburn 31-year-old also sold for £410; go back a little further to 2011 and these were selling for a mere £75.
Back to the land of the living from a distillery perspective and Benriach’s 1970 vintage 38-year-old PX finish sold for £620. 2011 saw these selling for £220.
As a distillery, Glenfarclas have always excited the keen whisky drinker by 
releasing exceptional quality spirit at an exceptional price. With the kind of quality we’re used to it’s no surprise we’re starting to see some upwards momentum of prices for older, rarer bottles. Older vintages are the key here and a bottle of the 1966 42-year-old sold for £360 alongside a 1964 from the Family Casks series, which sold for £440. From a quality versus cash perspective these older bottles still look very attractive.
Glenmorangie’s secondary market recovery continues, again lead by older vintages, with a bottle of the 1977 vintage hitting £300 for the first time. I remember buying a bottle of this in Edinburgh for £100 not so long ago and thinking it was too much!
A bottle of the exceptionally rare Connoisseurs Choice 1962 vintage Oban sold for £460, more than double its previous UK auction outing of £220.
Showing you can still get the odd bottle of decent old whisky for a reasonable price, a bottle of Tomintoul 1967/2000 from Gordon & MacPhail sold for £180. While this was a new record for the bottle (these were just £100 in 2012), £180 doesn’t sound too bad for a 30-year-old distilled five years before I was born.
The recent Taiwan exclusive release from Kininvie distillery (first ever release as a single malt at 23 years old) carries a UK equivalent price of £140. The first bottle seen on the UK auction market sold for a staggering £450. This bottle being from batch number one suggests we may see a broader release at some point.
In general, Macallan values were stable. There were a small number of new records, the most notable being a bottle of 1948 Select Reserve, which sold for £7,050 – a record by just £50. The 18-year-old and the 25-year-old Anniversary Malts were all broadly on par with values from the end of last year. Having said that, 2013 saw some significant increases for both these sets of collectable bottles.
Further lows were seen for more bottles from The Boutique-y Whisky Company and we saw a bottle of Caol Ila batch 1 sell for £50 (another sold for £55), wiping off exactly 50% from its previous UK auction outing of £100.
Unsurprisingly, Bowmore’s Devil’s Casks bottling has now settled to around £130-£140. With supply on the open market increasing I think it’ll be some time, if ever, before it recovers to its £280-£320 highs.
Finally, the Farewell Dram from Glengoyne, one of 204 bottles of a 1969 vintage bottled in 1998, sold for £340. A steady decline in values has seen this bottle gradually come down from its 2009 highs of £500.
A solid start to the year and particularly encouraging noting January has historically been the time when values can take a dip. As to whether this trend continues, as usual, only time will tell!
Until next week.
Slainte,
Andy
