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  • March / 5 / 2020

New World Record Set for Scotch Whisky

world’s largest private whisky collection has broken records in an online auction, as sales reached £3.2 million.

More than 1900 bottles were sold in the first part of the sale of Richard Gooding’s Perfect Collection, according to the auctioneers. A rare Macallan 1926 Valerio Adami 60 Year Old went for £825,000 – or more than $1 million –breaking the previous hammer price of £702,347 set in October 2018.

The sale through online auction house Whisky Auctioneer drew 1642 bidders from 56 countries around the world.

Gooding, a former PepsiCo bottling magnate, built up the collection over decades, regularly travelling from his home in the US to Scotland with his pilot to source special bottles at auctions and distilleries before his death in 2014.

His widow, Nancy, said previously: “It was clear to us as a family that collecting Scotch was one of Richard’s greatest passions – an endeavour that spanned more than two decades.”

Iain McClune, founder of Perthshire-based Whisky Auctioneer, said: “We always knew that the Perfect Collection could make whisky history but with auctions anything can happen.

“Not only was the highest-ever sale price for Macallan 1926 Valerio Adami achieved at more than a million dollars, Whisky Auctioneer became the first online whisky auction to sell a million-dollar bottle, with multiple other lots achieving hammer price world records. All in all, the first part of the collection sale achieved £3,290,000 of sales over 1932 bottles.”

McClune added: “Featuring show-stopping Macallan bottlings from the Lalique range, astonishingly rare and iconic bottlings including a lost distillery Old Orkney from Stromness Distillery – which set a record selling at $33,891 (£26,000) with bidders battling it out in the final moments – as well as an Ardbeg 1974 Double Barrel reaching a hammer price of $27,705 dollars (£21,250).

“For me it is the diversity within the Perfect Collection that is perhaps the most exciting aspect.”

Whisky expert Angus MacRaild said of the auction: “The results were significant for two key reasons in my mind. Firstly, the top end hammer prices demonstrated clearly that, not only can the online auction model compete with the traditional auction houses with these kinds of bottles but in Whisky Auctioneer’s case it demonstrably outperforms them.

“Secondly, and of more interest and relevance to the wider whisky community, the prices were still largely driven by perceived quality of liquid and overall scarcity of each individual bottle.”

MacRaild added: “Prices were generally high but hundreds of beautiful, historic and superb old whiskies have found new homes across the world.

“Some will be kept but most will be opened and enjoyed sooner or later – something I’m sure Mr Gooding would have wholeheartedly approved of.”

All of the above prices exclude the auction house fees.

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