cowdery Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 When people post their "what's it worth" queries, this is what they're hoping to hear:On Saturday December 8 Christie’s conducted the first auction of spirits to be held in New York since Prohibition. The total take was $304,800. The top single-bottle lot was a 1926 Macallan, which sold for an outstanding $54,000 and became the most expensive bottle of scotch ever sold by Christie’s anywhere in the world. Bottled in 1986 after spending a remarkable sixty years in wood barrel, the bottle was expected to fetch between $20,000 to $30,000. It was bought by a New York private collector.The top American whiskey was a bottle of rye made at Mt. Vernon in 2003 and bottled there in 2006, which sold for $6,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OscarV Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 60 years in wood?If this had been bourbon in the hot KY summers would there have been any left after 60 years?I wonder how much of this scotch evaporated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 If you buy you better drink it! It has to have one unique taste...after that long....I assume it was in a sherry cask..I would guess that it is very dark and almost like a light syrup in consistency....all of the sherry would have entered plus wood phenols etc. Have others seen or tasted anything really old.....over 30 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNbourbon Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 If you buy you better drink it! It has to have one unique taste...after that long....I assume it was in a sherry cask..I would guess that it is very dark and almost like a light syrup in consistency....all of the sherry would have entered plus wood phenols etc. Have others seen or tasted anything really old.....over 30 years?Quite possibly the 60-year descriptor is for the youngest whiskey. A 62-yo Dalmore from which I managed a smidge of a taste (search elsewhere here) included whisky which had been 'solera-ized' from as far back as the 1860s, according to the bottler, White & Mackay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 How did a three year old rye go for $6,000? Is this some sort of collector's bottle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob O. Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 How did a three year old rye go for $6,000? Is this some sort of collector's bottle?Somebody correct me if I am wrong, it is a bottle from Washington's Mt. Vernon Distillery. So someone believes it to be worth that as a collectible.There is some info here. Pretty interesting...it has been discussed on Whiskeycast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorCalBoozer Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Somebody correct me if I am wrong, it is a bottle from Washington's Mt. Vernon Distillery. So someone believes it to be worth that as a collectible.There is some info here. Pretty interesting...it has been discussed on Whiskeycast.I was trying to find out if there were any other American Whiskeys/Bourbons in the auction and the prices but was unable to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrel_Proof Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 I was trying to find out if there were any other American Whiskeys/Bourbons in the auction and the prices but was unable to.The only other American whiskey lot was a 12 bottle lot of Michter's: 2) 1.75s; 5) 750s; 4) Fifths; and a mini. Five of the 12 bottles were King Tut or Queen Nefertiti Decanters. There were "loose tops on numerous bottles, some with broken corks." Notwithstanding the poor condition of the lot, these 12 bottles sold for a total of ...$ 1920. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorCalBoozer Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Thanks Cliff! Very interesting. I've never seen a 1.75 Michters before, that would be cool to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubleblank Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 Tim brought a half gallon King Tut decanter to the Gazebo back at the 2004 Festival. It is definitely an eye catcher. I'll bet that is what was at the auction. There may be a picture of it here at SB somewhere.....I don't know for sure.Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TNbourbon Posted December 14, 2007 Share Posted December 14, 2007 Tim brought a half gallon King Tut decanter to the Gazebo back at the 2004 Festival. It is definitely an eye catcher. I'll bet that is what was at the auction. There may be a picture of it here at SB somewhere.....I don't know for sure.RandyI/we have drunk through 2 or 3 of those big heads, and I still have one or two Michter's bottles open currently. Little did I know I've been pouring my retirement plan:bigeyes:! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fussychicken Posted December 14, 2007 Share Posted December 14, 2007 The lot that was interesting to me was the huge 729 bottle collection of scotch. It was a combination of single malts, vattings, and blends. It went for $102k. And while that is indeed a very very large amount of money, in many ways it is kind of a deal. Of course I don't know the details about what was in this lot, but this averages out to $140 a bottle. Supposedly this lot had many older bottlings and bottlings from closed distilleries. So when you think about the time and effort that was spent to create this collection, $102k sounds like steal if you were a rich dude who liked scotch. (Not that I even remotely in a position to call any $102k luxury purchase a steal. ) The question for me is why?!? Why did some guy spend huge amounts of time, effort, and money for this collection only to sell it? The logical answer is that the person passed away and the kids sold it, but maybe not. Maybe one of us who has amassed a huge bourbon collection will one day wake up and say, "Hmmm. You know what? I don't like bourbon anymore. Time to send my 500 bottle collection to auction!" More info: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lfsearch_coa/LotDescription.aspx?intObjectId=5014925 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamba Posted December 14, 2007 Share Posted December 14, 2007 The 1926 Macallan was on the Mission Liquor website a couple years ago for $34,000. Little did I know what it'd be worth just a few years later! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeoDLion Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Not too long ago, there was this gentleman who lives in Wash State who posted in another forum, and wanted to sell his entire collection of single malt whisky, 750 bottles in all. He wanted to sell the whole lot for $50,000. He might be the same gentleman who sold his 729 bottles but got more than twice his initial asking price. If he is the same guy, I am glad he was able to sell it at a better price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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