Father and son's whisky collection goes down well at auction - The Rugby Observer

Father and son's whisky collection goes down well at auction

Rugby Editorial 12th Dec, 2020   0

A WHISKY collection with a tale to tell has gone down well at auction.

The collection of 112 bottles – which was offered as 62 lots and estimated to have cost around £3,500 in total – sold for a hammer price of £13,000 when its Rugby-based seller put it up for auction at Gildings Auctioneers’ Christmas Art and Antiques auction this month.

The whisky was collected during the 80s and 90s by the vendor and his late father, who shared a hobby of finding and buying different bottles to try together.

As father and son also shared a passion for walking in Scotland and The Lake District, many of the bottles were bought on these trips, often from shops tucked away off the beaten track.




Wherever possible, they would buy two bottles – one to open and try together, and another to keep for a ‘rainy day’.

Most of the pair’s purchases were for widely-available single malt whiskies – but they found some rarities on their travels.


One bottle of Longrow 14 Year Old, likely to have been bottled in the early 1980s and bought with its unassuming label for £14 from a Lipton’s store in Ullapool, increased its value tenfold nearly 40 years on at the auction, selling for £1,400.

Another rare find was a bottle of Talisker 1958, which father and son discovered sitting behind a standard bottle of Talisker for £15. They bought both bottles and the 1958 sold for £900.

Gildings director Will Gilding said: “It was a real pleasure to sell this collection of whisky with such an interesting family story behind it.

“All 62 lots in the auction sold, showing a continued strong demand for whiskies of rare vintages, especially whiskies bottled and well preserved from the 1980s and 1990s.

“The Longrow 14 Year Old was a particularly special example as it is a brand only introduced in 1973 and it comes from one of the stills of the unique Springbank distillery in Campbelltown, one of the last surviving single malt distilleries in that area.

“Also, it is interesting to note that of all the bottles in the auction, this bottle had the plainest label, proving that with whisky you should never judge a book by its cover.”

Apart from the £3,500 invested in the whisky over a period of 20 years, the only other cost the father and son incurred was a wardrobe to store the collection – meaning it is now perfectly preserved to be enjoyed by its new owners across the UK, Europe and beyond.

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