The final auction of the year is live over at Whisky.Auction, and there are over 1500 excellent lots to choose from. Perhaps you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas present, or perhaps more importantly, a gift that’s just for you to mark the end of an interesting year.
The Whisky.Auction December auction ends at 19:30 GMT Tuesday, 16 December.
Scoring an excellent 92 points from WhiskyFun with a drop or two of water, this 1977 Convalmore was bottled by Cadenhead’s for their Small Batch series in 2013 at 36 years old. 1977 is generally regarded as a great year for elegant fruit bombs from Convalmore, with Diageo also choosing this year for a release for their 2013 Special Releases series.
A Victorian distillery that fell victim to the 1980s mass closures caused by the ‘whisky loch’, Convalmore was used for blending stock for approximately 100 years. Reports suggest the new make from the distillery was intensely waxy, like a particularly fruity Clynelish. We’ll be hoping for tasting notes once the new lucky owner cracks this one open.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach £700-£900. Bid here.
At 28 years, nine months, 17 days and eight hours old, the ageing of Glenmorangie Pride 1981 required a careful balancing act from ‘pioneer of wood management in whisky production’ Dr Bill Lumsden.
In the late 90s, he was monitoring a small quantity of particularly well-aged whisky in the Glenmorangie warehouses, all in ex-Bourbon barrels, that had developed flavours of silky vanilla, citrus, pineapple, and almonds. He acquired and transferred the whisky into six casks that had previously contained wines from the legendary Château d’Yquem Sauternes and patiently waited another 10 years until he felt the whisky had reached its peak without losing any delicacy to wood-y cask aromas.
This whisky was then filled into 1000 Baccarat crystal decanters by French designer Laurence Brabant which were, in turn, cradled in wooden chests by Dutch artisan Wouter Scheublin to create this beautiful bottling. Bottle number 788 could be yours in our December auction.
Our valuation team expects a hammer price of £2,000-£2,500 for this decanter. Bid here.
Today, you’re highly unlikely (we never say never!) to find a bottle from cult Campbeltown distillery Springbank on the shelves of Tesco, but in the 1990s, this was a different story. The market for single malt, while tiny, was starting to develop, and the family-run Springbank Distillery was starting to recover after its closure from 1979 – 1987. What better way to sell plenty of single malt than to tie up with a grocer the size of Tesco?
Despite a good amount of these bottles being sold back in the 90s, a very high percentage were likely to have been drunk on purchase, making this a rare collectors item and an interesting part of Springbank history.
Great taste scores from the likes of WhiskyFun (90+) have helped to keep this bottle achieving high prices at auction too, and our valuation team expects this one to hit a hammer price of £700-£1,000. Bid here.
One of the many interesting and unexpected bottles to appear in our monthly auctions, this 20-year-old Scotch whisky was bottled for the famous fashion brand, Burberry.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Burberry’s had become a luxury lifestyle brand and saw an opportunity to widen its appeal by launching a range of Burberry-branded Scotch whiskies. This particular 20-year-old expression was launched towards the end of the 1980s and, while the whisky distillery is undisclosed, the bottle took inspiration from the hand-blown bottles of the late 1700s to add further prestige to the release.
When new CEO Rose Marie Bravo was appointed to the company in 1997 she set about restoring Burberry’s (or Burberry as it then became) to its fashion-focused routes, and the whisky range was discontinued.
Our valuation team expects this bottle to reach a hammer price of £300-£400. Bid here.
We’re finishing our monthly recommendations on a new bottling that’s been kindly donated to raise money for The Drinks Trust. This Johnnie Walker Blue Label, released to mark the Chinese New Year 2025, was designed by artist James Jean. It’s a beautiful bottle, made extra special by the signature of the one and only Emma Walker, the current master blender for Johnnie Walker. It also comes with a print signed by James Jean.
As this is a one-off bottle, our valuation team hasn’t put a set value to it. We’re looking forward to seeing the generous bids that come in to help raise much-needed funds for The Drinks Trust. Bid here.
For your final chance to bid this year, the Whisky.Auction December auction ends at 19:30 GMT Tuesday, 16 December.
