The 165th Auction

Our 165th auction, packed to the brim with delicious malts and a veritable cornucopia of alcoholic beverages, has now begun!  We have some amazing drams in the auction this month making it hard to pick out just a few to highlight so keep an eye out for our midweek email where we’ll shine a light on some more.  Here are some of the expressions in the auction which have caught our eye this month, including some particularly impressive Speysides.

First up is a bottle of astounding rarity this is the Balvenie 47 Year Old ‘Morgan’s Reserve’ - One of Eight Bottles.  A bottle so vanishingly rare we thought it best to include its staggeringly low outturn in the title, yes this is one of only eight bottles in existence and as far as we can tell this is the only time this bottle has been available on the secondary market! A marriage of seven Balvenie casks laid down for the whisky merchant, George Morgan, who originally traded from The Canongate in Edinburgh. Specially selected by his grandchildren, for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations of the Morgan family. A truly unique bottle of Balvenie indeed and undoubtedly a must have for any serious Balvenie collector. 

Staying in Speyside this beautiful bottling is the Linkwood 1956 60 Year Old Cask #20 Private Collection Gordon & MacPhail.  On 3rd January 1956, George Urquhart oversaw the filling of a specially selected European Oak first fill Sherry hogshead with new-make Linkwood spirit and left it to mature until 1968 when it was moved to warehouses in Elgin. Now two generations on, Cask 20 was bottled into fifty-six decanters.  This is an extremely rare 1st fill sherry 1956 single malt, and it is presented in a very special display case with a unique backstory.

Our final distinguished older Speyside selection in this highlight reel is the marvellous Glenfarclas 1953 Single Cask #1682.  Drawn from a single cask this whisky also has a remarkably low outturn with only 97 bottles ever being produced, making this dram a very rare one indeed.  Distilled way back in 1953 this whisky wasn’t bottled until 2012 making the liquid contained within one of the most well-aged Glenfarclas bottles available.  A magnificent single cask bottling this one, from one of Speyside’s biggest hitters.

Finally we have a departure from Speyside but no departure in quality, this is the Springbank 1966 24 Year Old Local Barley #443 75cl.  As if the Local Barley series wasn’t enticing enough this is one from 1966, a near legendary vintage within the Local Barley output.  Fully sherry matured and retaining a hefty 58.1% ABV this is a bucket list dram for many of us Springbank aficionados.  Rich in colour and sporting the rather cool old style Local Barley labelling this is an essential bottling for any serious Springbank collectors out there.

I think we can all agree that those are some mighty fine drams, but we also have a wide range of drams available from more modest drinkers to these more salubrious tipples, so now is the time to delve into this month’s offerings and start building that watchlist.  Best of luck to everyone in the auction, and as always………..don’t lose your bottle.