Auctioning off Three Rare ‘One of One’ Whiskey Lots and What it Will Take to Get Your Hands on These

Mark your calendar for the William Grant & Sons charity auction, December 3, 2021, at 1 p.m. local time in London. “The Distillers One of One.” Sotheby’s will be hosting the event at Barnbougle Castle. Three rare “never-to-be-repeated lots are up for auction — all one-of-a-kind.”

Rarest of the rare

Those who like to go unicorn hunting, for the kind of whiskey the bartender needs a ladder to reach off the shelf, know that there is only one only way to do it right. Attend the auctions. Especially, the charity auctions. That’s when the really rare offerings appear. These are all “one of one” lots.

William Grant & Sons has been hand crafting Scottish whiskey for over six generations. They expect their donation to the event to fetch “over £1 million GBP for Scottish charities.”

If you want to get your hands on one of these, now is your only chance. “three never-to-be-repeated lots are up for auction” starting with a sampler called Glenfiddich: The 1950s. This rare item is described as a “four-decanter prelude set of one-off bottlings from Glenfiddich distilled in the 1950’s.”

They represent “some of the oldest reserves in the William Grant & Sons stocks,” and were lovingly nurtured over generations directly by the family and Master Distillers.”

“These expressions from 1955, 1957, 1958, and 1959 are housed in a cabinet fitted with a high precision thermometer and hygrometer from world-renowned instrument makers, Fischer, allowing for careful control of internal environmental conditions.” Each portion of preciously rare liquid “is bottled in a Baccarat crystal decanter with a 24-carat gold neck and encased in a cabinet designed and made by HM The Queen’s royal warrant holding cabinet maker, NEJ Stevenson.”

“The cabinet is created using figured sycamore, maple, and hardwood and features an innovative mechanism to lay the whiskeys flat to prevent the cork from drying. The cushioning within the cabinet consists of lamb Nappa and goat suede, some of the softest natural materials in existence.”

One for Beatles fans

Beatles fans, perhaps even former Beatle Paul McCartney himself, should be interested in the rare offering from “lost” distillery Ladyburn. This limited edition is “a unique bottling” of 54-year-old whiskey “distilled in 1966, featuring a highly sought-after hand-signed photograph by David Bailey, one of the greatest contemporary portrait photographers of the modern era, of the icon John Lennon.”

The auction guide informs that “Ladyburn was one of the shortest-lived distilleries in history as it only operated for nine years (from 1966 to 1975) with very few casks remaining. It is regarded as a vanguard of its time in knowledge and expertise and the liquid marks an extraordinary moment in the history of Scotch whiskey in the 1960s.”

The star of the show at the auction will be the Balvenie 1964 Single Bottle Release. This isn’t just rare, it’s “one of the rarest and oldest expressions of The Balvenie ever to have been made available.” Prepare to dig deep before you enter a bid. Sotheby’s spells out the details of why it’s going to cost so much.

“For this unique single bottle release of The Balvenie 1964, The Balvenie Malt Master, David C. Stewart MBE, hand-selected this truly exceptional cask – 10379 – distilled on 18 November 1964. It has been maturing in Warehouse 24 for 56 years and has developed a remarkable complexity during this maturation.”

To sweeten the deal, this rare nectar of the Gods “is bottled in a one-of-a-kind, hand-blown crystal decanter made by Dartington Crystal and finished with a hand-made calligraphic label by world-renowned illustrator Peter Horridge.”

“The decanter is housed in a black walnut book-opening case created by Morayshire-based furniture craftsman Sam Chinnery. This is packaged in a walnut case with a solid brass stopper and corner bracing made by NEJ Stevenson, holders of HM The Queen’s royal warrant for cabinet making.”