The 37th Auction

Well, the birthday celebrations are over, the last crumbs of cake have been licked from the plates and we're into our fourth year with another bumper auction.A Macallan, an old Banff, and a Johnnie Walker leap out this month. A Macallan Lalique catches the eye. Bottled at 55 years old, it comes in a hand blown Rene Lalique decanter and is one of only 420 released worldwide. Vying for attention is a 37 year old Banff. Elbowing them aside is a Johnnie Walker 1805 Celebration Blend, made from just nine whiskies aged between 45 and 70 years old. Just 200 of these were released - but they were never made available to the public. Instead, Diageo selected 200 people who have made "a significant contribution to modern life" and gave the bottles to them.

Bottles for mere mortals include a fabulous Laphroaig from 1960, a couple of 40 year olds from Glenfarclas, a similarly-aged Linkwood and a stunning Springbank 40. Bunnahabhain weighs in with a couple of 40s, while Banff shows up with a 37 year old, and Dalmore with a 33 year old from the 1970s.

We've got a barrowload of Broras, hunners of Highland Park and the complete Cadenhead's Collection of white label bottles sold exclusively by Oddbins. These are in separate lots. From Islay we have the famed Bowmore Sheriff' 8 year old with accompanying mini and a Bowmore 32. From Mull, there's a 32 year old Tobermory. Also a scoop from Ardbeg - the Auriverdes Gold Bottling made available to journalists and bloggers only. The normal green bottlings will be available at Ardbeg's Feis Ile open day.

What else? Well we have a selection of Samaroli bottlings that are highly collectible. Last month's record sale of Balcones has sparked another appearance and we have a growing list of bourbons and rums.

A nice new feature for sellers is that you can log into the site and view your bottles in this auction. This will give you a list of your bottles and their lot numbers.

Also from this auction, reserves will be shown. This will be the minimum price the seller is willing to accept and should mean no more frustrating messages saying your bid has not reached the reserve. We hope you like this new feature.

As usual, our advice is to browse to you heart's content, get clicking and above all - don't lose your bottle!

Kind regards from Glasgow

The SWA Team - Alex, Bill, Chris, Des, George, Graeme, Ian, Jackie, Jess, Linda, Pete, Stewart and Tam