Auction Update: 20 Highest Single Bottle Hammer Prices of December

December rounded off the auction year with a strong month for bottles of Macallan, Hibiki 40 year old, and LeNell Red Hook Rye, each making multiple entries in this month’s list of the 20-highest hammer prices. The month’s 20 bottles sold for a combined sum of $862,186. While Macallan The Red Collection 60 year old topped the list, its value has plunged by more than $50,000 since the start of the year. The first bottle of Eagle Rare 25 year old 2024 release came up for sale at Unicorn Auctions, but fetching a hammer price of $22,100, it fell just short of making December’s 20-highest hammer price list.

In other auction news, Just Whisky launched a new website in December, only to watch as the auction traffic crashed the server in the final hours. The auction finally concluded 24 hours later than planned. Speyside Whisky Auctions announced that they were making some changes in the company, including withdrawing the offer of storage facilities to customers. No further auction dates have been posted, and its last auction concluded on November 5th.

Taking a step back to look at the year as a whole, the 240 bottles that made the monthly 20-highest hammer prices across 2024 sold for a combined sum of $10.03 million (for comparison, the 2023 figure was $15.6 million). The median hammer price of these 240 bottles was $31,805, down 6.5% or $2,222 from the equivalent value in 2023. Scotch was the largest category among these 240 bottles, accounting for 138 bottles (57.5%) valued at $6,164,899 (61.5%). There were 52 (21.7%) bottles of Japanese whisky, which sold for $2,264,608 (22.6%). The list included 47 (19.6%) bottles of American whiskey, which made up $1,532,200 (15.3%) of the value. Finally, 3 (1.3%) bottles of Irish whiskey were on the 2024 list, accounting for $68,815 (0.7%) of the value.

The best-performing brands were assessed as those that saw an increase in the net sum spent on their brand in 2024 on bottles making the 20-highest list. Using this measure, Van Winkle was the clear winner, with a net gain of $363,200 over its 2023 total, achieved through appearing on the list 13 times more than last year. LeNell and Hibiki were two other brands that made net gains compared with their 2023 performance, while Dalmore and Glenfarclas both made the list 6 times each, having not appeared on the lists at all during 2023. Macallan made up 37.5% of the bottles across the year, up 5 on its 2023 total. The value of these Macallan bottles made up 47.1% of the overall value of the 240 bottles on the list and accounted for 76.7% of the value of scotch, but the value of Macallan was more than $2.6 million down from 2023. Now that we’re into January, it’s time to reset and start again as we begin the search for the highest hammer prices of 2025.

December 2024 – 20 Highest Single Bottle Hammer Prices

Results converted to dollars using xe.com

20. Willett Family Estate 18 year old Private Barrel C49 for 1789b
Sold on: December 2^nd at Unicorn Auctions
Hammer price: $24,200

19. Karuizawa Water of Life 1968 50 year old Cask No. 6223
Sold on: December 2^nd at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $25,273

18. Old Rip Van Winkle 25 year old
Sold on: December 7^th at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $26,000

17. Hibiki 40 year old
Sold on: December 23^rd at Unicorn Auctions
Hammer price: $28,500

16. Karuizawa 1965 50 year old Japonisme Edition
Sold on: December 2^nd at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $30,074

15. Macallan Anniversary Malt 1928 50 year old
Sold on: December 8th at Scotch Whisky Auctions
Hammer price: $31,862

14. Macallan Sir Peter Blake Anecdotes of Ages 1967 Down to Work
Sold on: December 2^nd at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $37,909

13. LeNell Red Hook Rye 23 year old Barrel No. 3
Sold on: December 16th at Unicorn Auctions
Hammer price: $39,300

12. LeNell Red Hook Rye 24 year old Barrel No. 4
Sold on: December 2^nd at Unicorn Auctions
Hammer price: $40,300

11. Hibiki 40 year old
Sold on: December 2^nd at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $42,332

10. Hibiki 40 year old
Sold on: December 2^nd at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $42,963

9. Macallan The Red Collection 74 year old
Sold on: December 3rd at Whisky.Auction
Hammer price: $44,360

8. LeNell Red Hook Rye 24 year old Barrel No. 4
Sold on: December 7^th at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $45,000

7. Macallan in Lalique 55 year old
Sold on: December 7^th at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $45,000

6. Macallan The Red Collection 78 year old
Sold on: December 3rd at Whisky.Auction
Hammer price: $46,895

5. Macallan The Red Collection 77 year old
Sold on: December 7^th at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $48,000

4. Macallan The Red Collection 78 year old
Sold on: December 2^nd at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $48,650

3. Macallan The Red Collection 78 year old
Sold on: December 7^th at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $50,000

2. Macallan in Lalique 60 year old
Sold on: December 7^th at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $55,000

1. Macallan The Red Collection 60 year old
Sold on: December 2^nd at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $110,568

Each month, we publish the 20 highest hammer prices for single bottles of whisky. This table ranks the 20 brands by the sum of their 20-highest hammer price sales and shows the latest month’s results. Comparing 2024 against 2023, the change in the number of bottles and the sum for each brand is shown as it’s the final table of the year.