Whisky.Auction, the host of a monthly auction of spirits, liqueurs and wines, is offering a free valuation on any bottle you have had for ages but never opened and, for whatever reason, haven’t thrown away. It might be priceless.
Recently, a bottle of Macallan whisky bought for £11 in the 1970s was bought for £2,700 and 11 bottles of British Lemon Hart & Sons (founded in 1804 in Cornwall) black rum fetched $12,000.
Isabel Graham-Yooll, auction director at Whisky.Auction says: “Every month people come to us with all kinds of bottles that they’ve bought, inherited or discovered. They might just be gathering dust in the back of your cupboard but there’s a good home out there for every bottle. Whisky.Auction has a team of experts ready to help. Some of our customers have been really surprised by how much their bottles are worth!”
Graham-Yoll has been working in the wine and spirits industry for 20 years. It began with a part-time temporary job at Oddbins. She then managed the wine department at Selfridges, became an associate director at Jeroboams Wine Merchants, a whisky buyer at Milroy’s of Soho and head of spirits at BI Wines & Spirits.
“We have seen a slow but steady growth in bidders seeking classic cocktail ingredients. Some improve with age. Campari is a great example. Older bottles with cochineal evolve better in the bottle and have a positive impact on the flavour of the cocktail. A 100cl bottle of Campari from the 1960s can now fetch over £200,” she continued.
Chartreuse is also known to get better with age. A 1930-45 Yellow Chartreuse fetched £1,000 and 1951-6 75cl Green Reserve for the Allied Forces £1,050.
Graham-Yooll added: “Best value comes from looking for unfashionable liqueurs that are not as popular as they were in our parents’ day. Old kummel and kirsch, for instance, often sell for less than their modern-day equivalents. Famous brands such as Benedictine or Drambuie can also still be marvellously affordable at auction. But their day will come again!
“We’ve had a few lots that we have turned down – including tiger bone wine and two bottles of snake wine! We had a lady who was gleefully selling off some of her ex-husband’s beloved fine wines. At a recent auction there was a fabulous large format bottle of Cognac, inscribed by the bride as a gift to her husband-to-be. It was never opened and sold post-divorce! One lady brought in some random bottles, including an old Johnnie Walker which sold for £30,000!”
The rising demand for old spirits and liqueurs for making classic cocktails is due in part to diminishing availability. Gordon’s gin is much sought after.
“Look out for Gordon’s in a green glass bottle with a white label,” Graham-Yooll noted.
“These are the ones bottled at 40% ABV, before it was reduced to 37.5% ABV. Particularly desirable are the 1950s bottles with spring cap closures.”
Prices for rare whiskies are rocketing. Last year, an anonymous bidder paid £4,000 for an old green glass bottle of Scotch single malt, only four inches high. The Old Orkney Real Liqueur Whisky was made at the Stromness Distillery which closed in 1928. A 1967 Tomatin went for £1,900 and a 1984 Karuizawa sold for £1,150.
Whisky Exchange runs a dedicated miniature sales four times a year. Graham-Yooll continued: “Some people collect miniatures like stamps. But collectors are actually curating the history of Scotch whisky. Whisky prices are now inaccessible to a lot of enthusiasts, so these collections are attracting new interest because they offer the chance to taste whiskies that would otherwise be completely out of reach.”
A pair of 62-year-old Dalmore full bottles fetched £266,000. Sotheby’s also sold a 1926 Macallan for £1.5 milion.
Buy small and think big… In 2018, a miniature of 10-year-old single malt from the now-defunct distillery Malt Mill on Islay sold for £3,400 through Scotch Whisky Auctions. It was only ever used in a blend.
A miniature Yamsazi 18-year-old could be worth £2,000 where a full-size bottle only £310.
Antique cocktail shakers are another high-performing investment. Not long ago, Sotheby’s sold one for $7,500.
“There is certainly a market for old spirits being used in cocktails, but really it is only the five-star hotel bars that sell these pieces of liquid history. It seems like ordering one has become more of a signifier of status than anything else,” well-known mixocologist and distiller Alex Kammerling said.
“Not many drinks geeks/bartenders or historians have the money for a Sazerac with pre-philloxera Cognac or a Vesper with Kina Lillet!”