Merry Go Round

Scotland's best distilleries part with their rarest whiskies to do good but the compulsion to give back to the people and the planet doesn't end there.

- VICTORIA BURROWS

In the last few minutes before the gavel struck at the Distillers One of One charity auction at stately Hopetoun House in Scotland in October, bids for Bowmore STAC 55 Years Old, the oldest whisky ever released by the distillery, jumped by hundreds of thousands of pounds to reach an impressive £562,500 (S$941,000). The ultra-rare whisky, bought by an anonymous telephone bidder, comes in a spectacular magnum-sized bottle of hand-blown glass that replicates a rock face inspired by the distillery's home of Islay.

While the Bowmore release headlined the Oct 5 auction, another 18 auction records were smashed, including for the Brora Iris 50 Year Old 1972, the oldest Brora single malt ever bottled. Presented in a striking 1.5 litre suspended decanter designed to emulate the eye of the Scottish wildcat, it sold for £400,000.

The charming Christmas at Hazelwood, a wooden whisky advent calendar with a 51-year-old sherry cask-matured blended Scotch at the centre sold for £47,500, more than three times its pre-sale low estimate. The calendar is inspired by the ancestral home of the Gordon family, who own William Grant & Sons and probably have the greatest inventory of long-aged Scotch held in a personal collection, which they are releasing under the House of Hazelwood brand.

In all, 39 one-of-a-kind, never-to-be repeated Scotch whisky lots went on sale, bringing in a total of £1.8 million to benefit The Distillers' Charity. The charity was founded in 1955 to develop talent in the Scottish distilling industry. Ahead of the inaugural Distillers One of One auction, which took place in 2021, the charity set up the Youth Action Fund to promote sustainable employability outcomes for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Scotland.