Bidders eye up anniversary whisky

A bottle of whisky that was sold for £35 in 1996 has increased in value by over 60 times after being snapped up by a collector for £2,200 at auction in Glasgow.

The rare Private Eye Macallan, which was one of the highlights in McTear’s Rare and Collectable Whisky Auction, was bottled in 1996 for the 35th anniversary of the satirical magazine.

The 1961 bonded bottle features a screen-printed label by the legendary artist Ralph Steadman and is No: 216 in a limited run of 5,000.  Another similar bottle fetched £2,000 in the same auction.

Commenting on the sale McTear’s whisky specialist, Laurie Black, said, “This is one of the most collectable Macallan of all time and there was significant interest in both lots prior to the auction. Anyone who snapped up a bottle for £35 in 1996 made a very shrewd investment with bottles now selling for over 60 times their original value.”

Other Macallan in the sale included a 25 year old 1968 Anniversary Malt, which fetched £2,200, and a 1970 18 year old which was sold for £1,500.

Laurie continued, “Six of our top ten bottles in the auction were Macallan, proving yet again the investment potential in rare examples from this distillery.”

Another highlight in the McTear’s sale was a bottle of George Roe & Co. pure Irish pot still whiskey, which sold for £3,600. The sale of the 20 year old spirit coincided with Diageo’s launch of the Roe & Co brand in March 2017, named after the Irish whiskey maker George Roe whose Dublin factory closed in 1926. There was fierce telephone bidding with the bottle eventually going to an Irish collector.

In addition, an 11 year old Port Ellen, bottled for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, sold for £950 – well in excess of its estimate of £150-£250.