Charitable organizations have held raffles forever, but usually for a low ticket price and for modest items, especially when compared to silent and live auction items. In the bourbon world, though, raffle item value has been increasing, and now 2023 is taking shape as…
We’re celebrating a major milestone this week with the 1000th episode of WhiskyCast! To mark the occasion, Mark went back through the archives to pick some memorable moments and interviews from the past 18 years for this special episode. You’ll hear from legends like the late Parker Beam and Michael Jackson, along with Jimmy Russell, Jim McEwan, Maureen Robinson, Fawn Weaver, and Richard Paterson…just to name a few. This episode is a lot longer than usual, and there’s plenty more that we could have included. In the news, Scotch Whisky Association leaders are hoping to persuade Parliament to reject a Read More »
A trio of Bowmore whiskies – including a bottle of Bowmore 35 Years Old – were recently auctioned off at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr’s Whisky et Spiritueux d’Exception sale in Paris [held in December 2022]. The Bowmore 35 Years Old was originally offered for between $16,900-$21,130 but wound up with a winning bid of […]
A bottle of Buffalo Trace-owned Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year Old Family Reserve bourbon garnered a $52,000 sale price at a recent Sotheby’s auction earlier this month in New York – setting a new auction record for the brand. The bottle held a pre-sale estimate between $3,000 and $4,000 but whenever a bottle of Pappy […]
A bottle of Ardbeg whisky from 1974 – specifically, Single Cask Ardbeg #2742, filled on June 14, 1974 and bottled on September 20, 2005 – sold for $39,893 at auction, the most-ever paid for a bottle from the Islay distillery. Single Cask Ardbeg #2742 was one of 36 bottles from cask #2742, which were originally […]
The Glenturret has released a 50-year-old single malt – their oldest whisky ever. The Glenturret 50 Years Old was matured in a refill sherry cask, bottled at cask strength of 40% alcohol by volume [80 proof] and is said to contain notes of apple, dates and honeycomb. Only 150 bottles of The Glenturret 50 Years […]
Actors Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder discovered their friendship and a mutual love of Bourbon on the set of “The Vampire Diaries” television series. Once the show ended, they decided to launch their own Bourbon brand, Brother’s Bond, and it’s become one of the fastest-growing new Bourbon brands on the market over the last 18 months. While Wesley’s acting career now has him portraying the iconic character of James T. Kirk on “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” Somerhalder is practically a full-time whiskey blender. The Bourbon “brothers” join us on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, the Kentucky Bourbon Read More »
Andrew Welford is described as a “truffle hunter” for whisky history, but his best find to date didn’t sell for a penny. In fact, he donated an original John Walker & Sons shares ledger from 1944 that he found on eBay to Diageo’s corporate archive in Scotland. We’ll talk with him and Isabel Graham-Youll of Whisky.Auction, who helped bring together the book with its new home. In the news, the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit auction to help the state’s flooding victims is underway with bidding already exceeding $250,000. We’ll have that story and much more, including a Major League Baseball team Read More »
Scotland’s Isle of Islay is known for its distilleries, and construction will begin soon on the island’s 12th distillery near the shores of Laggan Bay. The Islay Boys, Donald MacKenzie and Mackay Smith, plan to build the new Laggan Bay Distillery across from Islay’s airport on the site of a former RAF World War II barracks. MacKenzie and Smith also own the island’s lone brewery, and plan to make Islay Ales part of the Laggan Bay development. We’ll catch up with Donald MacKenzie on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Kentucky’s Bourbon community is coming together again to help Read More »
The Bonhams auction house will be offering their inaugural spirits sale at Bonhams Paris location at 4 Rue de la Paix in Paris on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Bonhams’ 189-lot sale will feature several rare whiskies most “notably from Italian collections….such as rare bottles from [Silvano] Samaroli, one of the last Italian whisky trading companies,…including […]
