Rare Scotch whisky miniature sells for record £4000

A record £4,000 has been paid for what is believed to be the most expensive whisky miniature ever sold at auction.

Sold by leading online auctioneer, Whisky.Auction, the single 5cl miniature of Old Orkney ‘0.0’ Real Liqueur Whisky from the long closed Stromness Distillery was bottled in the 1920s or 1930s.

It was featured in an online auction dedicated to miniatures that included some of the rarest miniatures to ever have been made available to the public.

This exceptionally rare whisky was part of a collection of 84 miniatures from one seller who had paid £100 for the whole lot at an auction in Brighton on 1979.

The collection was predominantly blended Scotch whiskies and single malts bottled in the first half of the 20th century.

It wasn’t until the seller contacted Whisky.Auction to ask if some of his minis would be of interest to bidders that he realised how rare and valuable they were, “I thought they were worth something but had no idea” he said.

He added: “I started collecting in 1979. I worked with a friend and we were talking about hobbies, he said that he collected Scotch whisky miniatures. I thought that was something different so I had a go and was hooked. I was lucky to find an auction that had a collection. I didn’t know what was in it so I bid £100 and they phoned me the next day to say I had won it.”

Auction director for Whisky.Auction, Isabel Graham-Yooll, said: “As soon as this auction went live last week, there were some very keen bidders for this rare mini, but even we have been wide-eyed watching this one, seeing the bids gradually creep up over the course of the auction.

“This is the perfect illustration of the interest that exists in old and rare whisky. Much of the liquid we see coming to auction in miniatures is simply unavailable in full bottles, having been consumed many years before. Miniatures often outlive their full-size counterparts in ‘souvenir’ style.”