Auctions have been buzzing this month, with a frenzy of summer whisky sales delivering impressive results. Yamazaki 55 year old set a new highest auction price of the year this week, with another bottle of The Macallan The Reach 81 year old recently fetching a six-figure sum (see below for further details). Not to be outdone, this weekend’s Whisky Hammer sale includes the chance to bid on both of these collectibles again. We are predicting that June’s 20-highest hammer prices will break $1 million, and it’s looking like it will be the first month of 2024 to outperform the year-earlier period, reversing a downward trend of recent months.
We reported that American whiskey is performing particularly well at auction recently, making notable gains while some scotch and Japanese whisky values have been on the slide. Competition for rare bourbon and rye has pushed prices to new heights and made American whiskeys a regular fixture in our monthly list of the 20-highest hammer prices. This month’s Unicorn Auctions and Sotheby’s, New York sales saw brisk trading on bottles of LeNell’s, Old Rip Van Winkle, Michter’s, and other sought-after labels, and it’s now not uncommon to see them outperform bottles of Macallan and Karuizawa at auction.
To most people, the NFT craze feels like it was so 2022, but with crypto collectors choosing to burn tokens and redeem their bottles, these expressions are now beginning to appear at auction. As Unicorn Auctions proved with the Buffalo Trace O.F.C. 1982 bottle, these are capable of delivering excellent returns. While trading in NFTs on digital platforms can be slow to non-existent and prices have sagged for many releases, some owners are trying their luck instead at conventional auctions.
Around 1 in 6 tokens of the 456 NFTs of Ardbeg Fon Fhòid, the peated Islay whisky matured in casks buried in a peat bog, have been redeemed to make their way into the world, as have 1 in 5 of the 10 NFTs of Duncan Taylor Port Ellen 1983 40 year old, and 1 in 13 of the Dewar’s Double Double 21 year old Rye Cask Finish NFTs. Other than the vintage releases of Buffalo Trace O.F.C., American whiskey brands have been conspicuously underrepresented on BlockBar, which has focused mostly on scotch. Might the bullish secondary market for American whiskey encourage a new wave of American whiskey NFT collaborations, or will crypto whisky fade into obscurity as nothing more than the digital fad of 2022?
The Grand Whisky Auction – June 2024
Auction ended June 12th
- Scotch: Macallan The Reach 81 year old, $162,431. The third time this bottle has sold this year, following the sale of two bottles on the same day in April.
- Welsh: Penderyn Icons of Wales No. 5 Bryn Terfel, $1,766. This limited-edition Welsh single malt is named in honor of the Welsh opera singer, and was released in 2016 as part of the distillery’s Icons of Wales series.
- Irish: Redbreast Dream Cask 38 year old Zenith Edition, $1,733. The seventh and final release in the annual Dream Cask series was a 2024 release of 822 bottles, the aged single pot still whiskeys having undergone a secondary maturation in oloroso sherry butts after being re-casked from bourbon barrels in 2013.
Sotheby’s, New York – Rare Scotch, Bourbon, & Rye featuring the Hard Water Collection
Auction ended June 13th
- Scotch: Macallan 50 year old in Lalique, $60,000. The first release in the Six Pillars collection kickstarted a long-term collaboration between Macallan and Lalique.
- Rye: LeNell’s Red Hook Rye 23 year old Barrel #1, $38,000. This legendary rye exceeded its high estimate at auction yet again.
- Bourbon: Old Rip Van Winkle 25 year old, $30,000. While this was the highest bourbon bottle sold at Sotheby’s, another decanter fetched $37,600 at Unicorn Auctions four days later.
Unicorn Auctions – June Private Collection
Auction ended June 17th
- Japanese: Yamazaki 55 year old, $210,200. After an almighty online bidding war, Unicorn Auctions sold its first bottle of the oldest Yamazaki ever released. This is the most expensive bottle of whisky sold at auction in 2024 so far, and the first bottle to sell since Sotheby’s sold a bottle in Paris last December.
- Bourbon: Buffalo Trace Old Fashioned Copper 1982, $122,900. This was originally sold as an NFT on BlockBar.com, one of only five 6-liter bottles of 19 year old bourbon that was stored in stainless steel tanks for 21 years until its release in 2022 at a price of $25,000. The other four tokens have yet to be burned, and the last sale on BlockBar was reportedly only $55,000.
- Scotch: Macallan Fine & Rare 1952, $22,100. This Macallan was matured in a single second-fill sherry cask for 50 years and bottled in 2002.
Lot of the Week
We all know Pappy Van Winkle is impossibly scarce, so the sale of a 12-bottle case of 20 year old single barrel Pappy bottled for a defunct San Francisco restaurant is a rare sight indeed. Critical to its $80,000 auction value is the fact that it was selected in 2007, meaning it comes from the end of the Stitzel-Weller era of Pappy van Winkle bottlings. At this hammer price, each bottle comes close to being worth triple the secondary market value of regular Pappy van Winkle Family Reserve 20 year old. As well as being in great condition, this lot also included all 12 red velvet bags, neck tags, and even the original cardboard box that housed the 9 liters of Pappy’s stamped with ‘DSP KY 113’ on the side, the Kentucky distillery number for Buffalo Trace.
Lot: Case of Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 20 year old RNM Restaurant Single Barrel
Sold at: Sotheby’s, New York on June 13th 2024
Hammer Price: $80,000
Upcoming Auctions
Bottles to bid on in the next few weeks:
July 3rd, Christie’s, Hong Kong: Christie’s is bringing the third installment of an exceptional private cellar to auction next month, with this sale featuring scotch, Moutai, fine wine, and champagne.
July 9th, Sotheby’s, Paris: Bidding opens on The Umberto Angelini Collection on June 24th, a 700-bottle single-owner collection focused on rare scotch and independent bottlings from some of Italy’s most well-regarded importers and bottlers.
