Auction Update: 20 Highest Single Bottle Hammer Prices for March

Despite the current challenges faced by the whisky industry, the auction market made solid gains in March, providing some much-needed positive news. The combined value of the 20-highest hammer price lists for the first three months of 2025 was up 18% on the equivalent first quarter results of 2024. The 20 hammer prices of the month topped a million dollars for the first time in 2025, fetching a combined sum of $1,093,156. Three bottles, from Hanyu, Macallan, and Old Rip Van Winkle, each sold for $100,000 or more. Sotheby’s claimed the $100,000 bid on the Van Winkle bottle to be the most valuable single bottle of post-Prohibition American whiskey ever sold at auction, but as our 20-highest hammer prices of 2024 show, Unicorn Auctions sold a bottle of Buffalo Trace O.F.C. 1982 for a hammer price of $122,900. Even when the different buyer’s premiums are added for each bottle, the 6-liter O.F.C. 1982 is still a bigger deal.

While the headline makes for good reading, drill into the data, and not everything is quite as rosy. Bidding at Bonhams and Sotheby’s auctions in Hong Kong was lackluster. Many items that did sell were won with single bids at the starting price, without any competition, though Hong Kong did deliver 8 of the 20 highest-value bottles of the month. Both auction houses dropped the starting price on several whiskies as the auction rolled toward its conclusion. Bonhams, Hong Kong sold 109 lots for $366,581, but 73 lots, valued between $253,038 – $368,644, went unsold, with numerous mid-priced Karuizawa bottlings in particular failing to find bidders. Of the 20 bottles attracting the highest bids at Whisky Hammer in Scotland in March, 16 of them failed to meet the reserve price and remained unsold. Many collectors with high-value bottles fear selling a bottle without a reserve in the current market, yet Unicorn Auctions in Chicago regularly runs No Reserve auctions and continues to deliver strong prices, bringing confidence to both buyers and sellers alike.

March 2025 – Top 20 Highest Single Bottle Hammer Prices

Results converted to dollars using xe.com

20. Macallan In Lalique The Golden Age of Travel 1937 The Steam Train
Sold on: March 29^th at Bonhams, Hong Kong
Hammer price: $25,707

19. Hibiki Sakaida Kakiemon 35 year old
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong
Hammer price: $25,729

18. Karuizawa 1963 50 year old Cask No. 5132
Sold on: March 11^th at Christie’s, Hong Kong
Hammer price: $25,739

17. Macallan 1949 50 year old Millennium Decanter
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $26,000

16. Macallan in Lalique The Golden Age of Travel 1937 The Steam Train
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong
Hammer price: $28,302

15. Macallan in Lalique The Golden Age of Travel 1937 The Aeroplane
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong
Hammer price: $30,875

14. Karuizawa 1969 50 year old Cask No. 538
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong
Hammer price: $30,875

13. Black Bowmore 1964 50 year old The Last Cask
Sold on: March 10^th at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $34,840

12. Macallan 52 year old
Sold on: March 10^th at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $41,363

11. Very Very Old Fitzgerald 12 year old Blackhawk
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $48,000

10. Macallan 1950 Tales of the Macallan Volume I
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong
Hammer price: $48,885

9. Hanyu Ichiro’s Malt Card Series 1988 Ten of Spades Cask No. 9204
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong
Hammer price: $57,891

8. Macallan The Red Collection 77 year old
Sold on: March 10^th at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $58,713

7. Macallan in Lalique 57 year old
Sold on: March 10^th at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $60,648

6. Macallan The Red Collection 77 year old
Sold on: March 10^th at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $61,939

5. Macallan in Lalique 72 year old Genesis Decanter
Sold on: March 9^th at Scotch Whisky Auctions
Hammer price: $61,992

4. Macallan Distil Your World Mexico Single Cask No. 1964
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $65,000

3. Old Rip Van Winkle "Van Winkle Selection"
Sold on: March 21^st at Sotheby’s, New York
Hammer price: $100,000

2. Macallan Sir Peter Blake Anecdotes of Ages 1967 A License to Distil
Sold on: March 10^th at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $127,748

1. Hanyu Ichiro’s Malt Card Series 1988 Ten of Spades Cask No. 9204
Sold on: March 10^th at Whisky Auctioneer
Hammer price: $132,910

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.