The 98th Auction

Hello and a very warm welcome to our May auction! The lambs are leaping and so should you when you hear what's coming up. We have a budding array of maltalicious bloomers for you this month, so much so, it’s almost turned into a Club 50s party..

Let’s start off with a bang in our bouquet of malt flowers with a Springbank 1919 50 Years Old! This really is a rare treasure for those whisky aficionados out there. Each bottle comes with a letter of purchase, signed by the then distillery manager, which details the distillation and bottling dates of this spectacular bottling.

Continuing on the theme of the outrageously rare, it's difficult to overstate just how rare this bottle of Macallan 1970 is. Drawn from a single Sherry cask, it was bottled by R.W Duthie & Co of Aberdeen (the owners of Cadenhead's prior to J&A Mitchell) before being imported to Italy by Silvio Samaroli for Osteria Apostoli of Milan.This is the holy grail of independently bottled Macallans. Another independent bottling worth a mention is a Glenfiddich 1964 37 Year Old bottled by Ian Macleod. Rich in colour and only 200 released and we have bottle numero uno!

Shouting out from the North East we have a Dalmore 1966 30 Year Old 300th Anniversary of Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewer established in Kent in 1698. This modest Highlander was limited to just 300 bottles and laid down to rest for 30 years and its own quality is supposed to reflect the quality of the brewery’s cask ales and filtered beers.

Not a stranger to SWA but worth a mention is our Highland Park 50 Year Old. Only 275 bottles were produced from a vatting of five rather special sherry casks. The jaw-droppingly beautiful bottle is wrapped in a handcrafted silver cage designed by Maeve Gillies, an internationally-renowned Scottish jewellery maker, which celebrates the influence of the sea, wild weather and the passage of time, all of which have helped shape this remarkable whisky. As this fantastic liquid is drunk, a truly stunning surprise is revealed... but you’ll have to find out what that is for yourself.

Ending on what has turned out to be a slightly 50s theme malt party, we’ll leave you with a small treat. This Glen Grant 50 Year Old is presented in a small but beautiful replica of the Glen Grant stills. The cask was filled by a young Dennis Malcolm in 1963 and over half a century later the same man - and now Master Distiller - decanted the very same sherry cask to produce just 150 bottles of this fantastic liquid. Each 20cl bottle is decorated in 18-carat gold and sits in a solid Scottish oak box.

Get bidding and remember...don’t lose your bloomin’ bottle!