Oldest Scotch sale may fetch £10,000

EDINBURGH: A bottle of Scotch whisky that’s about 150 years old may attract bidders willing to pay as much as £10,000 ($19,000), the auctioneers said.

The Glenavon Special Liqueur Whisky, bottled on Speyside in northeast Scotland some time between 1851 and 1858, may be the oldest bottle of Scotch in existence, according to Bonhams, which will auction it in London on November 29. The bottle contains 14 fluid ounces, slightly more than a modern half-bottle.

“There is an increasing interest in old whisky,” Richard Harvey, head of European wine at Bonhams, said in an interview. “We have had a lot of interest from Asia, particularly Japan. I think there will be a lot of telephone bidding.”
Prices for Scotch malt whisky have risen. In September last year an anonymous Asian paid 70m South Korean won ($75,100) for the last bottle of 1926 Macallan malt whisky, a record for a public auction. A bottle of 60-year-old Macallan fetched a then-record £20,150 in ’02.

The bottle of Glenavon is described in the Bonhams catalogue as “2-part moulded olive-green glass with lettering on base, of around 14 fl ozs capacity white lead capsule embossed ‘Glenavon’ on sides and Special Liqueur’ on top; white paper label in good condition but with some smoke staining. Level: very top shoulder.”

Spirits such as whisky don’t deteriorate once they are bottled, said Harvey. The price bidders are prepared to pay may be limited by the fact that the precise date of bottling isn’t known and it’s only a half bottle, said Harvey.

The whisky may date back to before 1851 but there are no records of the Glenavon distillery before then, he said.

The whisky is being sold by a Northern Ireland woman whose family has owned the bottle for at least three generations and kept it “on the back of a shelf,” said Harvey. “A lot of people get nervous about drinking old whisky.” “I wouldn’t be surprised if it went for more than the guide price,” John Rose, an independent commentator who collects old whiskies, said in an interview. The Glenavon distillery was licensed to John G Smith in 1852, son of the founder of the nearby Glenlivet Distillery.

They consolidated their distilleries at Glenlivet, which is now owned by Pernod-Ricard’s Chivas Brothers unit, in 1859. The auction was reported earlier by the Herald newspaper.