February Auction Highlights 2020

Welcome to our February Auction highlights! We’ve got some tremendous stuff this month from the likes of Macallan, Clynelish, Bowmore, Rosebank and Glen Grant, so let’s get cracking!

MAJOR MACALLANS

Standout distillery bottlings include Macallan Rare Cask, Macallan Rare Cask Black, Macallan 25 Year Old 2018 Release, Macallan Edrington New Home, Macallan M Black Decanter MMXVII, Macallan Masters of Photography Steven Klein Print 10, the Macallan Folio Archival Series 2 and several bottles of Macallan Folio Archival Series 5.

Older Macallans this month include the Charles & Di Macallan Royal Marriage, and a string of classic Anniversary 25-year-olds, including Macallan 1957-1983, Macallan 1958-1984, Macallan 1962-1987 and Macallan 1968-1994.

There’s some interesting and unusual indie Macallans as well, including Signatory’s Macallan 1987-2006 18 Year Old and their Millennium magnum of Macallan 1990-1999, plus Macallan 29-Year-Old from Boutiquey, another Macallan 14-Year-Old Moray Open, various G&M Speymalts including Macallan 1950-2006, Macallan 1973-2015 and the otherworldly Macallan 1945-2013 68 Year Old, and a nice pair from Cadenhead’s: Macallan-Glenlivet 1987-2005 17-Year-Old at 46%, and Macallan-Glenlivet 1987-2005 17-Year-Old at cask strength.

BLUE CHIP OLD GLORIES

There’s some real classics this month, such as this G&M ‘Book of Kells’ Mortlach 1936-1986 50-Year-Old and the more recent Mortlach 1951-2014 Private Collection; the fabulous ship label Sherriff’s Bowmore, a 1960s 80-proof Glenlivet 12-Year-Old, Gordon & MacPhail’s thistle-print Strathisla 1937 and Talisker 1957, the glorious G&M Cask Series Talisker 1955-1995 and the frankly incredible Talisker 1957 100 Proof.

Staying with Gordon & MacPhail, there’s some more of the wonderful Glenlivets this month including an old 1960s thistle-print Glenlivet 1937 ,the later Glenlivet 1965-2004 and some Old & Rare and Private Collection bottlings, including Glenlivet 1954-2010, Glenlivet 1963-2010, Glenlivet 1974-2010, Glenlivet 1980-2010 and Glenlivet 1991-2010.

A real highlight now – this gorgeous Laphroaig 12-Year-Old bottled by Cadenhead’s in the 1960s and therefore containing 1950s distillate.  Bottled at 80 proof (46%), this will attract some fierce bidding. There’s a couple of belting Laphroaigs from The Syndicate as well: Laphroaig 1988 27-Year-Old and Laphroaig 1988 30 Year Old.

One of the highly-prized Glenmorangie 1971 Culloden bottles also features this month, the first we’ve had for over a year. Other rarely-seen gems include the Glen Moray 1966 26-Year-Old bottled in the early 1990s and

Signatory’s Dallas Dhu 1970-2000 30-Year-Old complete with tasting glass and miniature.

Miraculously we’ve also found another of the stunning Cadenhead’s gold label Old Pulteney bottled in the 1960s at 85 proof (48.5%), which is sure to set a few hearts a-flutter, and this marvellous 1960s bottling of Springbank 8-Year-Old.

Elsewhere, we were very excited to get our hands on some of the legendary George Strachan bottlings from the early 1970s: three bottles of the Rosebank 34 Year Old likely distilled in the 1930s-1940s and bottled at 88 

proof (50%) and this Glen Grant 25 Year Old bottled at 86 proof (49%). We expect very strenuous bidding for these treasures. Staying with Glen Grant, there’s also this superb 1960s Glen Grant 5-Year-Old bottled at 100 proof by Peter Thomson in the 1970s and the chestnut-coloured G&M Glen Grant 50-Year-Old.

Finally, one of the rarest bottles in this month’s auction is this Clynelish 1972 31-Year-Old bottled at 46% for AEA Technology Systems – just 35 bottles were produced and will no doubt generate a lot of determined bidders for this famed vintage. There’s also the more recent Clynelish 1972-2016 from G&M’s Old & Rare series.

ISLAY MAGIC

There’s some cracking Islay drams under the hammer this month!  We’ll start with the small matter of the extraordinary Bowmore 1964 Trilogy – a full set encompassing the Black, White and Gold Bowmores released between 2007-2009. We also have, for the first time, the beautifully-packaged Bowmore 1961 50-Year-Old, an extraordinary whisky and one of only 200 bottles released.

There’s some nice Ardbegs in this auction, with the sherried Ardbeg 1990-2007 single cask 86 and some interesting indies such as this private cask Ardbeg 1994-2017 23Year Old, another sherry cask from a very rare vintage when the distillery was practically silent.  Best of all, though, is this heavily-sherried Ardbeg 1976-2001 25 Year Old bottled by Douglas Laing subsidiary Douglas of Drumlanrig for the Scotch Single Malt Centre.

Moving on to Port Ellen we’ve got the evergreen Rare Malts Port Ellen 1978-2000 22-Year-Old and among the indies there’s the Port Ellen 17-Year-Old Cask Strength from Douglas Murdoch, Port Ellen 1979-2002 22-Year-Old by Signatory, Gordon & MacPhail’s Port Ellen 1980-2016 Rare Old and two sherried editions from Douglas Laing’s Platinum Selection: Port Ellen 1978-2006 27-Year-Old and Port Ellen 1978-2006 28-Year-Old.

FAVOURITES, BARGAINS AND CURIOS

Highland Park fans will be keeping a close watch on the 1980s G&M Pride of Orkney 12-Year-Old, bottled at 57% and the slope-shouldered 1990s Highland Park 25-Year-Old, while Campbeltown aficionados will be scrapping over the privately bottled Springbank 1989 25-Year-Old and the enticingly dark Springbank 21-Year-Old.

Everyone loves a good Glenfarclas and there’s some interesting ones this month including Glenfarclas 21 Year Old Apache 40th Anniversary 2015 and the Glenfarclas 1975-1995 20-Year-Old BP presentation sets and Hunter Laing’s lovely Probably Speyside’s Finest 1966-2016 50-Year-Old

Alongside the stellar G&M bottlings above, Talisker fans will be keeping tabs on one of Diageo’s best Special Releases, the 2007 Talisker 25-Year-Old.  That year’s Special Releases also included the excellent Glenury Royal 1970 36-Year-Old.

As ever, there’s plenty of interesting and good value picks this month, such as this G&M Longmorn 25-Year-Old, the rare 1980s Lagavulin 11-Year-Old, and several First Cask bottlings including Caol Ila 1981 21-Year-Old, the sherried Strathisla 1979 24-Year-Old and two contrasting Benriachs from the fabulous 1976 vintage, Benriach 1976 Cask 9443 and Benriach 1976 Cask 9445.

Good Luck and Happy Bidding!