Following whisky auction news is a bit like being a sports fan. You click on the latest report and wonder: what record will be broken today? What history will be made? Like many sports matches, auctions bring impressive yet familiar performances, but truly earth-shifting moments are few and far between. Or at least they used to be.
These days, it isn’t unusual for the hammer to come down on a five-or even-six figure sum on a bottle of Scotch, bourbon, or Japanese whisky. Yamazaki 55 Years Old, for one, made record-breaking sales in 2022 at Bohnams (US$445,944; £350,200), Zachys (US$320,000; £251,295), and Sotheby’s (US$480,000; £386,943).
That’s to say nothing of all-time records, such as The Macallan Fine and Rare 1926, which notched the status of most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold at auction when
