September Whisky Auction Highlights 2024
Welcome to our Whisky-Online September 2024 Whisky Auction! This blog has a glimpse of the highlights from this month's excellent whisky sale, with superb drams from the likes of Bowmore, Ardbeg, Macallan, Glendronach and many more, so let’s get cracking.
Distillery Bottlings
We’ve found some absolutely wonderful old and new official Distillery Bottlings for this month’s whisky auction. We’ll begin with Macallan - recent official bottlings from Speyside’s most sought-after distillery include Macallan Concept No.'s 1-3, Macallan Archival Folios 5 & 7, Macallan A Night On Earth Nini Sum 2023 and this year’s Macallan Home Collection River Spey Michelle Lucking Prints.
Classic Macallans in this month’s sale, meanwhile, include some all-time show-stoppers including Macallan Anniversary 25-year-olds from vintages including 1965, 1967 and 1968, a couple of bottles of the legendary Macallan Gran Reserva 1979 18-year-old, Macallan 1976 18-year-old and the famous Macallan 1948/1961 limited edition bottled for the wedding of Charles & Di in 1981.
There’s also some great old Highland and Speyside prestige bottlings from relatively recently all the way back to the last century. Brief highlights include Jura 1974-2008, an old Glenfarclas 30-year-old from around the turn of the millennium, and an even older, cask strength Highland Park 25-year-old, released in the 1990s in the classic old slope-shouldered dumpy bottle at a hefty 53.5%.
Elsewhere, connoisseurs of Diageo / United Distillers’ archive will be chasing some great stuff this month. There’s plenty of rare Flora & Fauna bottlings, including the wooden box edition of Rosebank 12-year-old and the rare Dewars distillery FFs - Craigellachie, Aberfeldy, Royal Brackla, Aultmore - which were quickly discontinued after the distilleries were sold to Bacardi in the late 1990s. There’s also a pair of the very rare and highly prized Flora & Fauna Cask Strength editions from the late 1990s, in the form of Dailuaine 1980-1997 and Aultmore 1983-1997.
Miscellaneous official distillery bottlings worth keeping an eye out for in this month’s sale include the rare Glenmorangie 1987-2004, a cask strength staff-only bottling celebrating the sale of Glenmorangie plc to LVMH. There's also a limited edition UK exclusive Glenfarclas 25-year-old, which was one of just 600 bottles released in 2021 in the elegant Glencairn crystal decanters at a poky 49.5%, and the even heftier Aberlour a’Bunadh Batch 20 from way back in 2007, when a’Bunadh was the best value cask strength whisky money could buy.
Blended Scotch whisky fans, meanwhile, will be keeping tabs on the Johnnie Walker 150th Anniversary set - a beautiful decanter and special blend released in 1985 - plus a wonderful old 1950s bottle of Diageo forerunners DCL’s King George IV blend, while single grain whisky fans will be lusting after the Girvan 1964 37-year-old bottled in 2001.
Finally a quick shout for a few non-Scotches and non-whiskies in this month’s sale, with highlights including Midleton Very Rare bottled in 1992, some great Cognac including the blue edition of Hennessy’s classic Library series and Martell’s short-lived Cordon Noir cognac, and last but not least a massive, magnificent 12-litre Balthazar bottle of Taittinger’s delightful Brut Reserve Champagne.
Independent Bottlings
There’s some fantastic old and new independent bottlings in this month’s whisky auction. Brief highlights include a 21-year-old Ben Nevis 1998 bottled at cask strength in 2020 by The Artful Dodger, and, going back further, we have a rare bottling from the famous Bladnoch Forum, a tantalising sherried 20-year-old Balblair 1990 bottled in 2010 at 46%, and a famous cask strength Springbank 1965 26-year-old, one of a trio of Anniversary bottlings released in 1992 for Soho whisky institution Milroy’s.
Gordon & MacPhail have some heavyweight Speyside gems in the sale, with this month’s picks including a sherried Strathisla 1964 bottled in 2004, Glenrothes 1961-1996 and the legendary 1970s Macallan-Glenlivet 15-year-old 100-Proof (57.15%), an early edition with the beautiful screen-printed thistle bottle.
The pick of the bunch this month, however, are a pair of absolute stunners from Cadenhead’s, in the form of Old Pulteney - the beautiful gold-labelled ‘Pure Highland Malt’ bottle released in the 1960s at 85 Imperial proof (48.6%) - alongside the glorious black label Laphroaig 12-year-old bottled at 80 proof (45.7%) around the same era, a wonderful oily, gently peated, exotic fruit masterpiece.
Miscellaneous indie bottlings to look out for this month include the likes of the lesser-noticed Balmenach 1972 30-year-old from Hart Bros, a fascinating full term port-matured whisky bottled in 2002 at 50.1%, plus old favourites like the superb Lagavulin 1979 15-year-old from mysterious Islay cabal The Syndicate and some great Irish Whiskey including 1950s Jameson 10-year-old and 1960s Redbreast 10-year-old bottled for retailers Donnelly & Co. and William Gilbey.
Finally for this section, we’ve got one of the best indie-bottled bourbons from yesteryear: the much-lamented old 15-year-old edition of Noah’s Mill bottled by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers in the late 1990s and early Noughties. We haven’t seen this excellent bourbon for a while - this edition is Batch E-20-82, indicating it was distilled in 1982, and as ever with Noah’s Mill it was bottled at a poky 57.15% (114.3 US Proof, 100 UK Imperial Proof).
Closed Distilleries
A small but splendid selection of closed distillery bottlings this month. Unicorn-hunters will be scrapping over Duncan Taylor’s superb Kinclaith 1969 35-year-old, a very rare edition bottled in 2004 at cask strength 52.8% and complete with tasting glass and miniature. This bottling was the first in a quartet of famous sister casks bottled by DT between 2004-2020, the last of which remains the only Kinclaith bottled by anyone since 2010.
Gordon & MacPhail are well represented by Connoisseurs Choice editions of Millburn 1976-2002 and Mosstowie 1979-2001. Mosstowie, you’ll remember, is the excellent experimental Lomond still single malt made at Miltonduff between 1964-1981, but sadly examples are becoming rarer and rarer nowadays.
Miscellaneous closed distillery bottlings to look out for in this month’s whisky sale include a Signatory Rosebank 1991 vintage and a glorious Port Ellen 1978 27-year-old bottled by Douglas Laing for their Old & Rare Platinum Selection in 2006 at its natural cask strength of 55.3%.
Single Casks
We have some amazing single cask whiskies for you in this month’s whisky auction. Official single cask bottlings in this sale include all-time legends like Ardbeg 1974-2002 Cask 3475, a stunning single cask bottled for Oddbins in the early days of Glenmorangie’s single cask programme. This one was an ‘oak barrel’ (most likely a first or second refill bourbon barrel) left over from the Provenance bottlings, and yielded just 126 bottles at its natural cask strength of 44.5%.
There’s plenty of other special official single cask whiskies too, including a single refill hogshead Glenrothes 1976-2015, a sherry butt of Ben Nevis 1998-2013 and the fantastic Laphroaig 1978 15-year-old single cask, the barrel for which was signed by Prince Charles when he gave the distillery his Royal Warrant in 1994, and was bottled the same year at his request to raise proceeds for the Cancer Relief MacMillan Fund. There’s also a handful of Glendronach single casks as well, as you’d expect, including a wonderful long-aged Glendronach 1972 43-year-old bottled from a Pedro Ximenez sherry cask in 2015 at 51.1%.
Other rare official single casks this month include bottlings from Glenturret, Edradour, Ardnamurchan and Arran (Lochranza) alongside several desirable Daftmills, including a handful of sherry casks. We also have private bottlings of Springbank 1989, 1991 and 1992 single casks, so Campbeltown fans are really spoiled for choice.
Moving to independent single cask bottlings and there are some proper showstoppers. Highlights include a phenomenal Talisker 1979 15-year-old bottled by Cadenhead’s in 1995 for their Authentic Collection at a truly remarkable 63.6%, and an incredible Bowmore 1970 35-year-old bottled by Signatory Vintage in 2006 at 51.3% - this was one of half a dozen amazing sister sherry casks of the 1970 vintage bottled by Signatory between 2005-2010.
We also have a couple of bottles of the magnificent Glenfiddich 1964 37-year-old bottled from a sherry hogshead by Ian Macleod in 2001 at a remarkable 58.7%, a 30-year-old Glen Garioch 1990 from Carn Mor, the rare and sought-after Jim McEwan’s Celtic Heartlands Glenlivet 1977 33-year-old and the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s second ever bottling of Knockando, a 1980 vintage cask bottled in 1993 with the SMWS code 101.2 at 57.1%, equivalent to 99.9 UK Proof.
That's it for this month's whisky auction highlights blog - check out the full auction here, Good Luck and Happy Bidding!