Owner's surprise as whisky gift fetches £12,000 at auction

Macallan 1940 50 Year Old Single Speyside Malt Scotch Whisky – sold for £12,000

Macallan 50-year-old is one of the most collectable of whiskies, and has dramatically increased in value over the last 20 years.

It was consigned at Tennants’ Harrogate Office, during one of their regular Fine Wine and Whisky valuation days.

The vendor had been given the whisky by a colleague a number of years ago, and hadn’t realised how much it had appreciated in value.

Krug Clos Du Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne 1981, 1983 and 1989 (sold for £5,000 plus buyer’s premium) and (right) six bottles of Château Gruaud Larose 1961 Saint Julien (sold for £850 plus buyer’s premium)

The bottle contains whisky distilled on January 1, 1940 and laid down by Macallan for 30 years, before the cask was bought by independent bottlers Gordon and Macphail.

They then moved the cask to their warehouses in Elgin, where it remained maturing for another 20 years before being bottled.

It formed part of Gordon and Macphail’s Speymalt range and is sold with its original presentation case and certificate.

Macallan still continues to dominate the whisky market at auction, and a further lot of four bottles from the Macallan ‘Decades’ Collection sold for £1,600.

Six bottles of Château Gruaud Larose 1961 Saint Julien (sold for £850 plus buyer’s premium)

Strong prices were also seen for fine bottles of vintage wine, with notable results achieved for two bottles of Château Du Pin: a 1993 ‘Le Pin’ Pomerols, which old for £2,200, and a bottle of Grand Vin De Château Latour 1961 Pauillac-Médoc which sold for £2,200.

Beating pre-sale expectations were six bottles of Château Gruaud Larose 1961 Saint Julien, which sold for £850 against an estimate of £200-400, two bottles of Paul Jaboulet 1978 Hermitage ‘la Chapelle’, whichsold for £850 against an estimate of £100-150, and a mixed lot of bottles from leading producers from the 1940s and 1950s, including Château Margaux 1953 Margaux and Château Lafite Rothschild 1953 Pauillac (sold for £700).

Good results, too, were seen for bottles of Krug Clos Du Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Brut Champage, produced by Chardonnay grapes from the most famous vineyard in the Champagne region.

A three-bottle celebration case released in 1998 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Clos du Mesnil sold for £5,000, and a further single bottle sold for £1,600.

The sale achieved a total hammer price of £83,570 for the 275 lots and an 89 per cent sold rate.

All prices quoted are the hammer price, excluding buyers’ premium of 22 per cent plus VAT.

Full sale results are available to view on Tennants Auctioneers’ website: www.tennants.co.uk