The oldest bottling of Brora in existence fetched HK$147,000 (£14,500/US$19,000) at auction in Hong Kong on Friday (19 May) – almost doubling its pre-sale estimate.
The 1972 Brora was matured for 44 years in an ex-Sherry butt and was the only bottle drawn from the cask. It was bottled as part of Diageo’s ‘Casks of Distinction’ collection.
With an abv of 58.6%, experts had predicted the whisky would sell for around HK$65,000-80,000 (US$8,300-10,300) at the Bonhams auction last week.
But an unnamed bidder obliterated those figures, paying almost double for ownership of the rare bottling.
Martin Green, Bonhams whisky specialist in Edinburgh, said: ‘This was a very special bottle of whisky – a true one-off – and I am not surprised that it was contested so fiercely nor that it sold for such an impressive price.’
Several other whisky lots exceeded their pre-sale estimates in the auction, including a bottle of Macallan Fine & Rare 1937, which fetched HK$269,500 (high estimate HK$240,000), and a bottle of Macallan Fine & Rare 1940, with a winning bid of HK$245,000 (high estimate HK$240,000).
A bottle of Macallan Fine & Rare 1950, which had been expected to sell for up to HK$200,000, was withdrawn from sale.
Meanwhile, a bottle of Japanese Hanyu 2000 Pine with Crane fetched HK$39,200 (pre-sale high estimate HK$36,000), and a rare Prohibition-era bottle of Schenley’s Aged Medicinal Whiskey from the US sold for HK$36,750 (high estimate HK$25,000).
