Bonhams New York completed its whisky auction on Tuesday, December 7 with 320 lots going under the hammer. The sale was greatly anticipated as the auction house has a well-crafted reputation in the city as the finest place to buy truly rare and collectible single malts since the Folsom auctions of a year ago.
As we reported, the lots included a bottle of 12-year-old Ladyburn Scotch (750ml at 43%) and a Chivas Regal-25 year old, listed at $3,800-5,000. The latter was aged in the cask for 25 years, but there is no definitive listing for when the 40 fluid ounces were bottled, though it appears to have been early 20th century.
Whether it was the whisky itself or the intriguing antique bottle it was held in, the Chivas Regal seems to have impressed bidders and it sold for $4,284.
 Chivas Regal whisky |
However the top lots, and strongest investments, were from The Macallan. Two bottles of the classic 50 year old anniversary Malt from a limited issue of 500, both in their original wooden cases and one with a 1983 dated letter from Chairman. Each bottle was expected to fetch $9,000-12,000.
Interestingly however the two did not achieve the same price at all. The bottle lacking a letter sold for $8,568 whilst the one with the document brought a much more impressive $11,900.
It's a useful reminder that even whisky has a memorabilia value and that often you are not only buying a drink with a fascinating and complex flavour, but a piece of history.
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