SCOTCH AUCTION AT HOLLYWOOD

 Sotheby’s Hollywood AUCTION Nets $2 Million in Sales

OVER 1100 LOTS FROM 91 DISTILLERIES ON AUCTION  

According to Whisky Advocate of May 2022, a time capsule of scotch whisky destined for Hollywood A-listers helped Sotheby’s to stage its largest ever Scotch Whisky auction on May 10. During the financial crash of 2008, an entrepreneur from southern California bought a shipping container of valuable bottles from a struggling U.S. whisky broker who had hoped to sell them to people in the movie industry. Instead, they went under the hammer in New York 14 years later as Sotheby’s auctioned the Hollywood Collection and Part 4 of the Three Continents Collection for a total hammer price of $2,034,100 (Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate was $1,481,750 – $2,063,050).

This one was a true celebration of Scotch, with over 1,100 lots on offer from 91 single malt and grain distilleries representing all regions of Scotland (discover the top 10 distilleries at this sale ranked by hammer price below). It was one of the most comprehensive sales of scotch from closed distilleries in the U.S. for many years, with bottlings from the Inverness distilleries Millburn, Glen Albyn, and Glen Mhor, plenty of Port Ellen from Islay, Convalmore, Dallas Dhu, Imperial, and Caperdonich from Speyside, Glenury Royal and Hillside distilleries in the eastern Highlands, and Littlemill and St. Magdalene from the Lowlands. Only Rosebank was conspicuous in its absence.

Unlike Sotheby’s American Muscle Collection, which sold largely to U.S. buyers, this sale attracted an international audience spread evenly between North America, Asia, and Europe, with 42% of bidders new to Sotheby’s. Around 40% of bidders were younger than 40 years old. Macallan was the focus for the day’s highest prices, though the headline bottles did not break any records. An increasingly rare find at auction this decade, the Macallan Millennium 50-year-old 1949 decanter sold for a hammer price of $32,000, the highest bid of the sale, but that was only the fifth-highest price of the seven of these bottles auctioned internationally since January 2021. Whisky Auctioneer achieved a bid 46% higher than Sotheby’s in January, selling a bottle for $46,811.

THE MACALLAN MILLENIUM WITH STOPPER

The Macallan Fine & Rare 50-year-old 1952 Cask No. 627 attracted a hammer price of $26,000 at Sotheby’s, slightly up on Sotheby’s performance of $24,000 or so in recent years, but again, an online auction solicited a bid 25% higher at $32,552 for the same bottle eight days earlier. The other end of the scale proved far more interesting, where there were some amazing vintage bottlings sold at bargain prices. A bid of $150 could secure a bottle of Singleton of Dufftown 28-year-old or a bottle of Campbeltown Loch 25-year-old blended scotch, while $200 was sufficient to pick up a Glenrothes 1984, a bottle of Gordon & MacPhail Speyburn 18 year old 1971, or for single grain fans, a bottle of Cadenhead’s Dumbarton 32 year old 1962. For lovers of 20th-century Scotch, Sotheby’s was definitely the place to be.

    TOP 10 DISTILLERIES BY HAMMER PRICE FOR INDIVIDUAL BOTTLES

BOTTLING	HAMMER PRICE
Macallan Millennium Decanter 50 year old 1949, 43%	$32,000
Balvenie 50 year old 1937, 42%	$24,000
Bowmore 40 year old 1955, 42%	$20,000
Springbank Millennium Collection 50 year old, 40.5%	$8,500
Whyte & Whyte Clynelish (Brora) 28 year old 1965, 50.7%	$7,000
Highland Park 40 year old 1958, 44%	$6,500
Glenfarclas 1953 The Coronation, 51.1%	$5,000
Glendronach Single Cask 43 year old 1971, 48.6%	$4,000
Ardbeg Provenance 1974, 54.7%	$3,200
Auchentoshan 44 year old 1966, 40.9%	$2,800

This is a copy of Sotheby’s Hollywood Ending Nets $2 Million in Sales.
MAY 16, 2022 | JONNY MCCORMICK

OTHER AUCTIONS: HONG KONG

72-yr-old single malt fetches over $54,000 in HONG KONG auction

This was the first time that a 1948 Glen Grant whisky, by independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail, was offered in an auction. The whisky, the oldest from the Glen Grant distillery, was in a Dartington crystal decanter with an American black walnut presentation box.

This 72-year-old bottle of Glen Grant single malt whisky from Scotland fetched more than USD 54,000 in an auction in Hong Kong in May 2021. It was number 88 of 290 decanters bottled by the company and was auctioned off by Bonhams, fetching a price of 421,600 Hong Kong dollars (USD 54,300) including premium. The bottle had a book estimate of 300,000 to 380,000 Hong Kong dollars.

35-year-old Hibiki whisky Kutani ceramic decanter fetches 372,000 Hong Kong dollars (USD 48,000)

Despite the economic uncertainty brought by the pandemic, interest in rare whiskies remains high. Compared to other investment commodities, collectable whisky has done well in the past 10 years with a four-fold increase in prices, according to the whisky specialist at Bonhams. The other whiskies featured in that auction included a 35-year-old Hibiki whisky from Japan in a Kutani ceramic decanter that sold for 372,000 Hong Kong dollars (USD 48,000).