Welcome back to another edition of Auction Spotlight where we take a look at the price differential between an auction and the previous 3 month prices to get a feel for where the market is at.
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This auction spotlight we take a look at Irish Whiskey Auctions latest (August) auction vs all sales from the 11th of May, to the 11th of August inclusive. Last month we did see a bit of a lull in prices, so it will be interesting to see if that continues or if we will be back on the up.
Now, for the numbers of the auction. As always we’ll start out with my ‘watchlist’ where I earmark certain bottles or new releases that caught my eye during the auction to give an indication of some sort of value.
Top level stats:
Number of lots: 784
Number of lots successfully won: 770
Avg Price of Successful Lot: €209.37
Avg Change Successful Lot: 4%
New/ Noteworthy Sales
Willie Napier B. Daly Tullamore 44 Year old Pot Still: One of few 40year+ old Irish Whiskey releases. One of 114 bottles with the youngest whiskey being distilled in 1945 it is a piece of history to behold. I was expecting this to hit €2,000 but it just fell short at €1,950. Considering other options at this age, will this be a bargain in months to come?
Irish Whiskey Society – Marrowbone Lane (51266): It seems like this has been on everybody’s tongue the last few months with it getting praise after praise which has seen the price rise. This time around we’ve seen it go from strength to strength rising from €670 to €745
Inish Turk Beg: An interesting bottle that is getting tougher to find, and it’s actually surprisingly large seeing it in the flesh rather than photos. A firm collectors item, yet it has dropped this time around 22% from €770 to €620 the next appearance will show us if this is a correction or a minor blip.
Gilbeys Redbreast 12 Year Old Liqueur Whiskey: Two 1950s bottlings turned up this auction with the 1958 ‘Gilbeys of Ireland’ fetching an eye watering €1,510 and the pre 56 ‘W&A Gilbey’ finishing at €1,020. 2 very unique and rare bottles showing their worth.
Green Spot 10 Year Old Mitchell & Son (Bicentennial): One of the most sought after Green Spots, the 10 year old Bicentennial edition. Last seen in Celtic Whiskey Auctions for €805 in Feb, and before that at IWA in November with 2 bottles avg €760. This one took a bit of a jump rising to €895 showing its popularity, still think there’s some room there for increasing.
Bushmill Causeway Collection
Last month the Feuillette cask was the biggest hit, but it seems to have recovered this time around gaining 44% from last months auction and 24% over the 3 month average coming in at €1,250. Overall the Causeway Collection steadied itself this auction with an avg of -1% change over the last 3 months. Last months drop looks like it has plateaued and prices have recovered.
Dingle
The Founding Fathers had fallen out of favour late last year, but seemed to have a bit of a resurgence the last few auctions. This time around however there was an average -10% drop on the 3 month average and not much better from last months auction. An Chead hOcht took the biggest hit with 4 showing up this time around, and it falling every month since its initial showing at €300. This time around the 4 averaged out at €160. The LVA has always been one of the higher priced Founding Fathers, but even that dropped a huge €200/28% this time around.
The Single malt/ Single Pot still releases were a bit touch and go, a lot of them recovering from their drops over the last few months, and the Cask Strengths being the biggest performers. Batch 5 CS made the largest jump increasing 56% on the average!
Jameson Caskmates
2 fairly rare cask mates turning up in this auction with the Balebreaker and Beavertown, both doing decent money but the Balebreaker still down on its peak back last October. Revolution was fairly close to the average with the Young Henry Australian release taking a substantial -26% decrease on the average, but still above the last IWA so perhaps a turning point for this bottles correction.
Midleton Very Rare
The Midleton Very Rare collection overall increased on average by 18%. Surprisingly the 2020 and 2021 increased by 30% and 18% respectively. 2020 might be one that you could come to understand with the lower release numbers, but with 2021 still set to have another release in the next couple of months, it is a bit surprising to see this rising to €285 on avg, €105 over the RRP!
RedBreast
An interesting view here for RedBreast, it looks as if most have stuck to the status quo which is good to see for some long term sustainable growth. The only notable drop on the 3month average was the DreamCask 32, however, given the number of DC32 that have sold recently after its large spike, its expected to have a bit of a correction.
Teeling
Another view here where not much activity is going on, which can be welcomed I think. The Renaissance Series 1 hasn’t shot back up to it’s spike earlier this year, and with series 2 and 3 almost sold out, we’re bound to see 4 soon enough so it’s one I’ll be keeping an eye on.
Waterford
An interesting graph here on the Waterfords, with a lot still below retail, yet rising from it’s much lower than retail price 3 month average. On the other hand the more sought after, and rare ones are clear with Dunmore, Donoughmore, Wilkinstown all being tough to obtain SFOs and the Lómhar Micro Cuvée climbing on the 3 month average.
There were some other notable mentions like the Dark Silkie, rising 39% on the average to €170 and Bob Dylans Collaboration with RedBreast putting in an inital sale of €255 and Dungourney 1964 seeing its first negative showing at auction in many months dropping 10% on the average to €1,800.
If you’d like to dig in deeper to the numbers, download The Whiskey Companion app now, or sign into the website to get all of the data at your fingertips.
Until next time,
Sláinte.
