November Auction Highlights 2022
Welcome to our Whisky-Online Auctions highlights for November 2022! We’ve got some wonderful drams coming under the hammer from distilleries including Brora, Balvenie, Longmorn, Glenugie and Port Ellen, so we’d best crack on.
First, though, you'll notice that we've updated our auction website this month! We've added a new navigation feature - check out the Filter dropdown menu to choose individual distilleries, brands or bottlers to help narrow your selection and quickly find what you're looking for.
This Month's Macallan
As ever, there’s some truly fantastic Macallan from recent times and yesteryear. Recent highlights include the 2022 release of Macallan 30-year-old Sherry Cask, plus Fine Cacao and Intense Arabica editions from the Macallan Harmony Collection, Macallan Home Collection Colin Rizza and Macallan Folio Archival 6. There’s also another of the Macallan James Bond 60th Anniversary editions, a set of six commemorative Macallans each decorated with artwork from the films of different decades.
Golden oldie Macallans in this month’s auction include the likes of Macallan 1968 25-year-old Anniversary Malt, a clutch of great old 18-year-old Macallans from vintages including 1967 and 1971, and the majestic Macallan 1979 Gran Reserva.
Islay Magic
Ardbeg fanciers can pick from classics including the 2000 release of Ardbeg 10-year-old ‘Introducing’, the legendary Ardbeg Lord of The Isles 25-year-old and recent arrivals including this year’s Ardbeg Hypernova Committee Release HN2022.
Staying on the south coast, Lagavulin fans will be chasing The Syndicate's Lagavulin 1979 38-year-old and 40-year-olds, plus the official cask strength sherry-matured Lagavulin 1995 Feis Ile 2013 and a wonderful old bottle of 1980s Lagavulin 12-year-old - an old white label ‘White Horse’ edition with an incredible rich chestnut colour.
The legion of Laphroaig loyalists, meanwhile, will be keeping an eye on the 2020 release of Laphroaig 25-year-old Cask Strength and a lovely pre-warrant Laphroaig 10-year-old from around 1990, plus the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s Laphroaig 1991 12-year-old SMWS 29.34, bottled in 2004 at a robust 59.1%.
Port Ellen aficionados have got plenty to keep themselves occupied, with a great run of early Port Ellen Special Releases and rare indies including Signatory’s Port Ellen 1975 24-year-old bottled for the Millennium, Scott’s Selection Port Ellen 1983-2001 and one of Royal Mile Whiskies’ first indie bottlings, the cask strength Port Ellen 1977 19-year-old released in 1996.
Moving to the centre of the island, there’s some lovely 1980s-90s bottlings of Bowmore this month too, including a litre bottle of the much-loved 1980s brown dumpy Bowmore 12-year-old and 1990s screenprint editions of Bowmore 17-year-old and Bowmore Mariner 15-year-old.
Modern classic Bowmores in this month’s whisky auction, meanwhile, include the London Edition of Bowmore 1995 26-year-old, one of the distillery’s greatest vintages in the last 30 years bottled from a single first fill Oloroso sherry cask in 2021, and this year’s Bowmore 22-year-old The Changeling, finished in a white port cask.
Elsewhere, savvy Bruichladdich fans will be keeping tabs on Bruichladdich 20-year-old First Edition, which was bottled in 2001 shortly after Murray McDavid took over the distillery, and Bruichladdich 1989 16-year-old Full Strength, an old Oddbins exclusive bottling from 2005.
Finally, for the Bunnahabhain aficionados there's the Bunnahabhain 1971 35-year-old bottled for the distillery’s 125th Anniversary in 2006 and the Spanish Oak Finish Bunnahabhain 2002 bottled for the Islay Festival in 2018.
With our updated filter system, you can now view all this month's Islay whiskies here.
Sherried Treasure
Sherried favourites this month include a 1990s litre bottle of the much-loved Glendronach 15-Year-Old, the famous Glendronach 1972 18-year-old, and the official single cask Glen Garioch 1986 16-year-old, a sherry butt that clocks in at 54.4%.
Other great sherried treasures in this month’s sale include single casks such as Adelphi’s wonderfully dark Tomintoul 1966 34-year-old and Berry Bros & Rudd’s Glen Grant 1969-1999 alongside more recent releases such as the 2022 edition of Glenallachie 18-year-old.
Indie Classics
There’s more indie classics than a student disco this month! There’s a particularly fulsome selection from the fantastic First Cask series up for grabs, with highlights including Glen Grant 1976 20-year-old, Ben Nevis 1990 18-year-old, Highland Park 1989 18-year-old, a refill sherry cask Clynelish 1996 18-year-old and many more - check out the full list here.
Elsewhere, Gordon & MacPhail chip in with this splendid Connoisseurs Choice Balblair 1964 17-year-old, the magnificent Mortlach 25-year-old Silver Jubilee bottled in 1977 and the extraordinary Private Collection Glenlivet 1978 40-year-old bottled in 2018. That’s not the only great G&M Glenlivet in this month’s sale, of course - there’s also their fabulous licensed bottlings, with Smith’s Glenlivet 15-year-old (1960s) and Smith’s Glenlivet 15-year-old (1970s) both coming under the hammer.
Signatory are also well represented this month, with gems from unicorn lost distilleries like Glenugie 1976 25-year-old, the Silent Stills edition of North Port Brechin 1975 26-year-old and, rarest of all, the Ben Wyvis 1968 31-year-old, to say nothing of the iconic Signatory Springbank 1967 34-year-old, the last of Signatory’s incredible casks from this vintage, which was bottled at a natural 47.2% in 2001.
Other notable indie bottlings in this month's whisky auction include Ian MacLeod’s Extremely Rare Glen Grant 1949 50-year-old, Berry Bros & Rudd’s St. Magdalene 1982-2009 and some great Brora including G&M’s Connoisseurs Choice Brora 1972-1993 and an Old & Rare Platinum Brora 1977 26-year-old by Douglas Laing, who also have a fantastic Glenlochy 1965 38-year-old in this month’s sale.
Spotlight: Balvenie
We’re huge Balvenie fans here at WOL, so we were delighted to be able to list so many superb bottlings from the distillery this month. Classic Balvenies from yesteryear include the first release of Balvenie Rose 1991 16-year-old, an early bottling of Balvenie 30-year-old and the first edition of Balvenie 17-year-old Sherry Oak released in 2007.
More recent Balvenie collectable editions and future classics include the likes of Balvenie 25-year-old Rare Marriages, Balvenie 25-year-old Triple Cask and Balvenie 1996 15-year-old Craftsmen’s Reserve: The Cooper, a cask strength limited edition bottled from a pair of what must have been pretty active refill sherry butts in 2012.
Favourites and Curios
Some excellent Springbank this month, with ‘90s classics like the black label Springbank 15-year-old and Cadenhead’s incredible Springbank 1980 White Label single cask bottled at a whopping 58%, alongside some more unusual oldies including one of the remarkable Springbank 1972 vintages bottled for Tesco in the 1990s and a splendid Springbank 1979-1995 private bottling for St. Andrews University’s Quaich Society for The Open championship in 1995.
Returning favourites this month include an early Talisker 18-year-old bottled around 2006, and while we’re on Talisker, there’s the first ever Distillers Edition Talisker 1986 from 1997 and a very promising 1990s Poit Dubh 21-year-old blended malt whisky which should have a healthy dollop of 1970s Talisker within.
In non-Scotch news, for Irish whiskey fans there’s Midleton Very Rare vintages including 1986, 1999 and 2006, and the fascinating collector’s item Old Comber 30-year-old, made at the Comber distillery which closed in 1953 - the brand name was revived by Dunville’s in 2021, but this 30-year-old was the last bottling of the original distillery’s whiskey. Non-whiskies this month include a rare salesman’s sample stock bottle of the magnificent Hennessy Paradis Cognac, and some fabulous Champagne from the likes of Bollinger, Pol Roger and Dom Perignon.
That's it for now - as ever, these are just brief highlights from this month's sale - check out the full auction here, Good Luck and Happy Bidding!