Dalmore 50-year-old fetches £26k at auction

A 50-year-old decanter of The Dalmore from 1926 has topped Bonhams’ whisky auction in Edinburgh, fetching £26,250 (US$35,120).

The 50-year-old whisky was distilled in 1926 and sold for £26k

The rare whisky was distilled in May 1926 before it was left to mature for 50 years and then bottled on 17 February 1978.

The £26k whisky was presented in a Glencairn Crystal decanter and accompanied by a certificate signed by Dalmore master distiller Richard Paterson, dated 17 March 1999.

The whisky had an estimated sale price of between £15,000 and £20,000, however the rise in popularity of rare whiskies helped push its successful bid well above this.

Bonhams saw several spirits fetch prices above their estimates during the Edinburgh auction.

A trilogy of whiskies from the Bowmore distillery on Islay was expected to sell for between £14,000 and £16,000 but eventually sold to an unnamed Asian buyer for £25,000.

The three Bowmore whiskies were distilled in 1964 and included a 2007 bottling of the 42-year-old Black Bowmore, a 2009 bottling of 44-year-old Gold Bowmore and a 2008 bottling of the 43-year-old White Bowmore.

The sale also included a complete set of all 16 Port Ellen Annual Releases. The set of 16 whiskies from the the closed (soon-to-be-reopened) distillery was estimated to fetch from £17,000 to £19,000 but when the hammer finally fell the price had risen to £20,000.

The set was similar to one that Bonhams sold earlier this year and contained whiskies aged from 22- to 37-years-old, all of which had been distilled  in 1978 and 1979.

The popularity of whisky auctions has been rising, and between April and June this year £6.18m (US$8.26m) was spent at whisky auctions around the world.