The 38th Auction

Welcome to our 38th auction, which coincides with Feis Ile 2014 The Islay Festival of Malt and Music. Expect to see most of the distillery offerings at our NEXT auction! For this month, however, we have our usual mix of top whiskies at top prices, and top quality whiskies at bargain prices.

Stars include the 1966 Springbank local barely, a Highland Park from 1952, a Glenlivet from 1955 that is 18 days short of being 50, a Longmorn from 1964 and a 30 Year Old Ardbeg.

Macallans? How about an Annie Leibowitz, The Skyline, a couple of Elliot Erwitts. a pair of Macallan M 1824 Series and a Macallan Fine & Rare from 1961? There's a beautiful old Balvenie Overproof from 1965, a Tun 1401 Batch #1, a 25 year old Springbank and the fabled Flora & Fauna Sepyburn.

There's a 37 year old Lagavulin from 1976, a Talisker Pure Malt over 8 Years old, and a lovely Strathisla from 1965. Continuing the Islay theme, we have a complete set of the Bowmore Legends - all 13 of them - as separate lots. We've also got a Cadenhead's Caperdonich from 1965.

On more mundane matters, we are continuing with our attempts at complete transparency by publishing the reserve prices. From today these reserves will be the minimum bid the vendor is prepared to accept. You will not be able to bid below.

We are also making some changes to our storage policy. Storage remains free for UK and EC customers for three months after each auction, after which time there will be a charge of £1 per item per day, plus VAT. This will enable us to clear our shelves of auction items which stretch back almost three years. Overseas customers will get six months' storage free to enable them to build up enough bottles for economical shipping. After six months, they too will be charged £1 per item per day. If bottles are not collected in the requisite time, the storage charges will be added until they match the value of the bottles, at which time the bottles will be repossessed.

But back to the bottles. Our usual advice applies; log in, browse and bid to your heart's content and remember - don't lose your bottle!

Kind regards from Glasgow

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