November Auction Highlights 2025

Welcome to our November 2025 Whisky-Online Auction highlight blog! There’s loads of superb old whiskies coming under the hammer in this bumper auction, from distilleries including Brora, Macallan, Springbank and Karuizawa, so we’ll get straight to it.

Casks In Bond

We'll start with a trio of first fill bourbon hogshead casks of Irish whiskey from Northern Ireland's Hinch distillery. These casks are currently maturing in Hinch's warehouses near Saintfield and were filled on 11th November 2022, meaning they will be celebrating their third birthdays and officially turning into Irish whiskeys next Tuesday, the day before our auction ends.

Hinch is one of the most interesting of the new wave of Irish distilleries, and we thought these casks were great - Connas' tasting notes for Cask 003354 are included below:

Hinch Cask 003354 61.2%

Nose: Light and spirit-forward with nail polish remover and soft fruits. Oaty biscuits and a touch of flapjacks with barley water and a couple of drops of lemon juice. Soft pear flesh and candied cherries appear with time.

Palate: A silky feel with bold with ripe fruit, banana, pineapple, coconut, apple and a touch of tangerine for citrus. A slight touch of spice from gingerbread. Unmistakably young but very palatable even at 61.2%.

Finish: Condensed milk and warm sponge cake on a medium finish.

Comments: This has great potential. If time is on your side, give the spirit a couple of years to mingle with the cask and combine some spicey characteristics and this could really sing.

Distillery Bottlings

We'll kick off our Distillery Bottlings highlights with a small batch Springbank 30-year-old Campbeltown single malt whisky bottled by the distillery in the mid-1990s. Released in the famous Springbank dumpy bottle with a parchment label, this 30-year-old non-vintage Springbank would have been distilled in the mid-1960s. This superb 30-year-old Springbank came out around 1995, but was quickly overshadowed by the subsequent 1966 Local Barley 30-year-olds that appeared shortly afterwards, leaving this bottling as something of an obscure one-off that today is often better value than its more famous successors.

Over on Speyside, we've got a small batch Aberlour 1970 21-year-old Speyside single malt whisky released by the distillery in 1991. This early prestige bottling from the distillery that still frequently called itself Aberlour-Glenlivet was a limited edition of 8000 bottles at an easy-drinking 43% and was assembled from a small batch of bourbon casks - although nowadays Aberlour is predominantly associated with sherry casks, the distillery has always used bourbon casks for maturation as well. This delightfully elegant 21-year-old Aberlour 1970 shows delicious gentle orchard fruits, biscuity sweetness and spices and is one of the best bourbon-matured Aberlours ever bottled.

For the blended Scotch whisky fans, meanwhile, we have an early special edition of the Johnnie Walker 15-year-old Kilmarnock 400, this bottle was released in 1992 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the brand’s home town of Kilmarnock being granted the status of Burgh of Barony by King James VI in 1592.

Johnnie Walker 15-year-old Kilmarnock 400 is one of the rarest and most sought after of the early prestige editions of Johnnie Walker. Apart from the fact that the whiskies inside must have been distilled no later than 1977, this is also due in part to the bottle’s scarcity - just 1992 bottles were released. Interestingly, despite the gold label presentation of Kilmarnock 400, this whisky actually predates the introduction of Johnnie Walker Gold Label, which appeared for the first time three years later as an 18-year-old.

There's some amazing Macallans in the sale this month, such as this old bottle of Macallan 30-year-old Sherry Cask Speyside single malt whisky. This is an official bottling released by the distillery in the 2000s at some point after 2006 but before the end of the decade.

Even at the time of release, these Macallan 30-year-olds were difficult to obtain, with retailers getting tiny allocations and batches so small that there was never enough stock for everyone who wanted one. Nowadays, with Macallan mania still on the rise, these extraordinary old sherry cask 30-year-olds, which would have been distilled in the mid to late 1970s, are more popular than ever. 

Best of all for Macallan fans, this month, however, is the Macallan 1950 'Handwritten' edition, a wonderful old vintage Macallan bottled by Atkinson & Baldwin around the turn of the 1980s. Several versions of this ‘Handwritten Label’ edition were originally bottled by or for the distillery’s licensed partners including Gordon & MacPhail and Matthew Clark in the UK and distributors in France, Germany, Italy and Australia. The distillery subsequently took all official bottlings in-house soon after these vintage bottlings appeared. A fabulous example from the latter half of the distillery’s golden era.

Moving up to the Highlands, we have a famous 1971 vintage Glenmorangie released in 1996 to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 that finished the Jacobite rebellion. This Glenmorangie is widely known as one of the distillery’s greatest ever releases. 

For connoisseurs of whisky aesthetics, Glenmorangie Culloden is also one of the most stylishly-presented Glenmorangies you’ll find, with a fabulous old-style bottle modelled from a contemporaneous original bottle from Culloden House, complete with air bubbles in the glass. This marvellous Glenmorangie has long enjoyed a pre-eminent position in the Glenmorangie annals, not only as one of the most desirable Glenmorangies for collectors but also for drinkers, with an outstanding complexity encompassing noticeable Oloroso sherry notes, nutty and herbal flavours and traces of camphor and menthol.

Independent Bottlings

We’ll start this Independent Bottlings section with an old glory: a lovely old bottle of Glen Grant 15-year-old bottled under licence by Elgin indie legends Gordon & MacPhail at 100 Imperial proof (57.1%). This one has fluid ounces and Imperial proof measurements on the label, meaning it was bottled in the 1970s, and therefore the whisky itself must have been distilled no later than the mid-1960s. 

The Gordon & MacPhail bottlings of Glen Grant from this era are spectacular drams - the company’s founder John Gordon had owned shares in Glen Grant, beginning a relationship between the firm and the distillery that still benefits both today. This is one of the lighter versions of this glorious golden age whisky, matured most likely in refill casks that let the distillery’s peerless spirit express itself to the full.

Other G&M bottlings to look out for this month include a pair of youngish Scapas from the 1986 and 1991 vintages bottled under license around the turn of the millennium and a 33-year-old Jura 1989 bottled in 2023 for the Connoisseurs Choice Cask Strength series.

Elsewhere amongst the indie bottlers there’s also a string of exciting indie bottlings from Highland mavericks The Thompson Bros up at Dornoch, with highlights including a 23-year-old Ben Nevis 1996, a 27-year-old Ledaig 1995 and a tantalising pair of 32-year-old single grain whiskies distilled in 1990 at Girvan and Invergordon.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society are very well represented this month too, with brief highlights including a 20-year-old Bowmore 1988, an 18-year-old Laphroaig 1990 bottled back in 2009 and 1980s vintages of Mortlach, Glen Grant and Mannochmore.

Closed Distilleries

We’ll kick off the Closed Distilleries section with a bang: A small batch Brora 38-year-old Highland single malt whisky, this was bottled in 2016 as the highlight of that year’s Diageo Special Releases. This was the 15th Brora Special Release bottling and was the penultimate Brora in the Special Releases, as Diageo subsequently put out their remaining stock of Brora in the considerably more expensive Prima & Ultima and Casks of Distinction ranges.

Assembled from a small batch of refill bourbon and sherry casks from the 1977 vintage, the Brora 38-year-old is packed with waxy fruit, nutty and earthy flavours with a tantalising thread of woodsmoke, and was an edition of 2984 bottles at a natural cask strength of 48.6%.

It’s a great month for Brora aficionados - other highlights from the recently-reopened Highland gem include an excellent Connoisseurs Choice Brora 1982 released by independent bottling legends Gordon & MacPhail in 2002 and a celebrated Brora 1972 Highland single malt whisky bottled in 1997. 

This latter was one of the last of a dozen or so absolutely amazing 1972 Broras bottled by Gordon & Macphail in the 1990s after around a quarter of a century of gentle maturation in G&M’s magical Elgin warehouses. This particular 1972 Brora packs a jaw-dropping amount of power and flavour into its 40% strength, so expect waxed fruit flavours alongside notes of fresh soil, farmyard notes and a glorious phenolic, minerally complexity.

There’s plenty of other interesting G&M bottlings from closed distilleries this month too, including a youngish Connoisseurs Choice Rosebank 1990 bottled in 2004, and a long-aged Dallas Dhu 1980 released in 2014 in the Distillery Labels range.

Pulling that thread a little further, we have several other excellent bottlings of both Rosebank and Dallas Dhu in this month’s whisky sale. Rosebank collectors will be keenly watching a trio of Rosebank 12-year-old Flora & Fauna editions and a pair of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s Rosebank 1992 11-year-olds bottled in 2003; Dallas Dhu enthusiasts, meanwhile, will be tussling over a 21-year-old Dallas Dhu 1980 bottled by Douglas Laing, a 31-year-old Dallas Dhu 1975 from the SMWS and an officially bottled Dallas Dhu 1974 31-year-old released by the distillery’s erstwhile stewards Historic Scotland.

Elsewhere, single grain whisky fans will be keeping tabs on a very promising Douglas Laing Private Stock Dumbarton 2000 20-year-old bottled from a refill cask at an epic strength of 59.5%, while further afield there’s another of the legendary single cask Karuizawas coming under the hammer this month, this time from the incredible 1984 vintage, specifically Cask 3660, which was a phenomenal sherry cask bottled by Number One Drinks back in 2011 at a thumping natural cask strength of 59.6%. 

Single Casks

There’s some wonderful Single Cask whiskies to choose from in this month’s whisky auction. Officially-bottled single cask highlights include recent gems like the 2023 release of Glenfarclas 20-year-old Generations #2, a superb limited edition of just 600 bottles bottled from a port pipe in an elegant Glencairn decanter at 50.5%.

We also have a legendary Glendronach 1972 38-year-old released by the distillery in 2010 as part of Batch 2 of their single cask releases following the takeover by Billy Walker in 2008. Walker propelled Glendronach’s reputation into the stratosphere with these remarkable single casks, and the 1972 vintage editions have passed into whisky folklore thanks to their glorious tropical fruit notes and a particularly noticeable thread of earthy phenols among the rich sherry flavours. This 38-year-old Glendronach 1972 came from single cask 718, an Oloroso sherry butt that yielded 396 bottles at a feisty 51.5% natural cask strength.

Older examples of official single cask bottlings include one of Glenmorangie’s early prestige bottlings, a Glenmorangie 1972 single cask released in 1992. Glenmorangie were evidently very proud of their 1972 vintage, releasing dozens of these single casks between 1991-1994; this one is cask 1678, bottled as a 20-year-old in October 1992 from a single American oak hogshead cask at a sturdy 46%.

Highlights from the indie single casks in this month’s sale include a single cask Bunnahabhain 1978 30-year-old released by independent bottlers Murray McDavid in 2009 as part of their Mission Gold range. This bottling was a special edition exclusively for the famous Austrian whisky shop Potstill in Vienna and began its maturation in a sherry cask before being finished in a port pipe that turned out a total of just 240 bottles at its natural cask strength of 53%.

It’s a great month for Bunnahabhain fans, as there’s also an even older Bunna in the form of Artful Dodger’s Bunnahabhain 1980 38-year-old, a refill hogshead bottled in 2018 at 44.7%. Staying on Islay, there’s also a tempting Laphroaig 1991 11-year-old single cask from the SMWS, while over on Speyside we have Maclean and Bruce’s Longmorn 1992 30-year-old released in 2022 at 44.6%. 

Miscellaneous single casks worth keeping tabs on this month include a Teeling 1988 26-year-old Irish single malt whisky bottled in 2016, a 1984 Glen Grant 25-year-old from the SMWS and finally an outstanding 1977 Ben Nevis bottled by Cadenhead’s for their iconic Distillery Label series at a blistering 60.9%.

That's it for this months whisky auction highlights - check out the full sale here, Good Luck and Happy Bidding...