Rare Scotch whisky miniature sells for £6,440 at whisky.auction!

A tiny 5cl bottle of Springbank Scotch single malt whisky distilled in 1919 has sold for £6,440 via online auction site Whisky.Auction!

The Springbank Scotch single malt whisky distilled in 1919

Whisky collector and co-founder of online retailer The Whisky Exchange, Sukhinder Singh, sold over 400 bottles from his collection of whisky miniatures during the latest miniatures and memorabilia auction at Whisky.Auction, with the full collection reaching a tremendous £56,732.95 after commission.

Other impressive lots included:

· An extremely rare 5cl 1940s Glenfiddich Special with box, bottled in the 1940s, which sold for £2,530 – a record for this particular whisky

· A 5cl Macallan Spiral Label from the 1970s which sold for £2,185

· A miniature bottle of The Glenlivet 50 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky from The Winchester Collection distilled in 1967 and bottled on 6 June 2018, which sold for £1,552.50

The carefully curated selection of miniatures had been collected by Sukhinder during the 1980s, 90s and 2000s. He decided to sell a large proportion of his collection to make room for future purchases, keeping just one bottle from each distillery to be displayed in a cabinet with the rest of his collection.

The carefully curated selection of miniatures had been collected by Sukhinder during the 1980s, 90s and 2000s

I am extremely pleased that after 40 years of collecting these miniatures they have found their way into other collections around the world. 10 miniatures from my collection reached prices of £1000 or more including the Springbank 1919 which achieved £6440.

I am thrilled to see that interest in miniature collecting is at an all-time high as it’s something I fell in love with four decades ago.
– Sukhinder Singh: The Whisky Exchange Co-founder

We have seen a wonderful renaissance in the appreciation of rare whisky miniatures. Bidders are willing to pay what seems like a lot of money for tiny bottles of whisky but it is the opportunity to taste a piece of history – particularly when standard 70cl or 75cl formats have become inaccessible for many enthusiasts to buy.

Highly rated limited edition whiskies can seem eye wateringly expensive, but the starting bids for miniatures at Whisky.Auction is just £2 and the market for the oldest and rarest examples is more accessible than ever before.
– Isabel Graham-Yooll: Auction Director at Whisky.Auction

Whisky.Auction runs a quarterly miniatures and memorabilia auction, with the next auction due to go live on 17 October 2021.

Fantastic collection of old and rare miniatures from Sukhinder Singh heads to auction!

Sukhinder Singh, co-founder of leading global whisky retailer The Whisky Exchange, is putting part of his miniatures collection up for auction via Whisky.Auction from Sunday 15th August, including some very rare examples of early bottlings.

Sukhinder Singh, co-founder of The Whisky Exchange

Sukhinder will be selling 400 miniatures from his collection amassed over several decades, many matching the full bottles he also owns. The majority of the miniatures are single malt or blended Scotch, but there are also some gin, cognac and rum lots too. Highlights from the auction include:

· An extremely rare 1940s Glenfiddich Special with box

· The only known example of a miniature bottled by Gordon & Macphail – a 1930s Glen Grant – believed to be the first miniature they ever bottled

· A pair of very old Cardhu sales samples, believed to be the only known examples with a UK label

· Close to 100 beautiful old blended scotch whiskies, mostly bottled in the 1930s & 1940s originally purchased from David Maund, chairman of the UK miniature bottle club for nearly two decades.

Well-known in the whisky world for his unrivalled collection of Scotch whisky, Sukhinder originally collected miniatures – building up a collection of 5000 different whisky miniatures by the early 2000s.

He sold this collection to focus on old and rare bottles of malt, but has continued to collect some miniatures ever since. He will be selling the majority of his current miniatures collection in this auction, reserving just 100 that he cannot part with, focusing on collecting one from each distillery.

There are two types of people who buy miniatures, the collector and the drinker. Miniature collecting has been going on since miniatures began back in the early 1900s. In the early years I remember buying a number of collections from people who had been collecting for over 40 years. What I do like about miniatures is that large collections are easier to display. Each miniature tells a story of the liquid and the distillery.

Over the last five or so years as prices for bottles of the rarer single malts have increased, more people are looking at miniatures of the same so they can open and try the liquid. In some cases the miniatures seem to work out cheaper by the measure than buying a large bottle.

At one point some 20 years ago, I thought miniature collecting would die out as it was difficult and costly to find miniatures from around the world. Then as the internet became more popular, it was much easier to find fellow enthusiasts and new miniatures. Over the last 10 years, the hobby has grown considerably and prices for rarer miniatures now fetch thousands of pounds.
– Sukhinder Singh: Co-founder of The Whisky Exchange

The auction will go live on Sunday 15th August

The collection will be sold as part of the quarterly miniatures and memorabilia auction from Whisky.Auction, which will be live from Sunday 15th August, with lots beginning to close from 7.30pm Tuesday 24th August.