There have been some truly impressive whiskey auctions at Sotheby’s over the past year or two, but there is one going on now that truly stands out from the rest. Interested buyers now have the chance to purchase a trunk full of 50-year-old whisky produced at famed scotch distillery the Balvenie, a truly rare lot that is expected to sell for as much as $600,000 when the auction ends.
This lot is part of Sotheby’s Finest Whisky auction that also includes the incredibly rare Bowmore ARC-54 Iridos Edition, a 54-year-old single malt that comes in a stunning and bizarre decanter designed by Aston Martin. The Balvenie 50 Year Old Private Cask #16560 Trunk contains 10 bottles of whisky that were dumped from the barrel in 2020, just 10 days short of when the whisky would have turned 51 years old. That means the liquid was given a 50-year-old age statement, which is still pretty impressive, when it was bottled in December of 2021 at 57.1 percent ABV (impressive for a single malt this old). The whisky comes from a single cask—Sherry Butt #16560—which was filled in 1970. The cask was originally selected for the William Grant private client group (William Grant owns the Balvenie), and was available for one client to purchase as a set. We did not get to try this whisky, but official tasting notes describe leather, sweet raisin, and citrus on the nose, followed by oak, hazelnut, and peppery pine on the palate.
The Balvenie collaborated with Scottish artist Paul Furneaux to create specially designed labels for the entire collection, which consists of 220 bottles in total. These bottles come inside oak boxes, and 10 of those are contained in each of the 22 gold-gilded oak trunks that make up the collection. According to Sotheby’s, the trunk that is up for auction is expected to fetch between $320,000 and $600,000, and the proceeds from this sale will go to benefit the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and the King’s Trust. You can bid on it here through May 29.
In addition to the Balvenie Trunk and Bowmore ARC-54, there are numerous bottles of Macallan single malt included in the Finest Whisky auction, like the Macallan x Bentley Horizon bottle that comes in a horizontal sculpture. There is also an impressive showing from Islay distilleries Ardbeg and Laphroaig, Isle of Skye distillery Talisker, and some rare finds from Japanese ghost distillery Karuizawa. You can peruse the entire auction catalogue now at the Sotheby’s website.
Authors
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Jonah Flicker