The success of Sotheby’s transfer to capitalize on the dynamic marketplace for collectibles was evident in its end-of-year figures, with its luxurious division up 22 % to $2.7 billion in 2025. The redesign of its primary regional headquarters in Hong Kong, Paris and now the landmark Breuer Constructing into “One other World” of luxurious was part of the technique. Conceived as a boutique expertise, every new headquarters’ spatial storytelling and cross-category showcasing are designed to increase the public sale home’s attain by attracting a extra various set of audiences at completely different value factors and enhancing the symbolic worth of the model and its choices past artwork connoisseurship.
Uncommon spirits, significantly wine and whiskey, have emerged as one of many strongest-performing classes, proving particularly efficient at attracting first-time bidders, typically youthful collectors and patrons from rising geographies such because the Center East, India and the broader APAC area. Later this month, on Jan. 24 on the Breuer location, Sotheby’s will provide essentially the most helpful assortment of its variety ever to come back to market in its first-ever reside, single-owner American whiskey public sale. Estimated between $1.17 million and $1.68 million, The Nice American Whiskey sale consists of 360 bottles from a meticulously curated personal holding, auctioned throughout 320 tons. “The worth, high quality and rarity of those bottles are unparalleled,” Zev Glesta, Sotheby’s Whiskey Specialist and AVP, mentioned in an announcement. “This isn’t only a nice American whiskey assortment—it’s the assortment, bringing collectively the very most interesting examples ever produced. Every bottle tells a narrative, captures a second in historical past and preserves the lineage of a craft that continues to develop and evolve at present.”
This exceptional whiskey assortment displays years of devoted amassing and stands as a testomony to the historical past, artistry and technical information of a few of the most revered producers. That is significantly evident within the Van Winkle choice, which features a group of outstanding tons representing the strongest expression of the model’s heritage and lineage ever introduced at public sale. Ranked among the many most prized and helpful American whiskeys in existence, most of the Van Winkle single-barrel choices—bottled for Sam’s, Binny’s, Blue Smoke, Delilah’s and Outdated Advocate—had been produced in extraordinarily restricted portions and largely consumed instantly, leaving solely a handful of uncommon surviving examples.
Amongst them is an previous Rip Van Winkle 20 Yr Outdated Single Barrel “Sam’s” (1982, 133.4 proof), one in every of solely 60 bottles produced and bottled completely for Sam’s Wines & Spirits in Chicago because the highest-proof Van Winkle ever launched, supplied by Sotheby’s with an estimate of $70,000-100,000. Additionally auctioned the identical night shall be one other unique single-barrel bottling, a Van Winkle 18 Yr Outdated “Binny’s” (1985, 121.6 proof), estimated at $60,000-80,000, alongside a Very Very Outdated Fitzgerald “Blackhawk” 18 Yr Outdated, privately bottled by the American Whiskies for the Wirtz household of Chicago Blackhawks fame, carrying an estimate of $50,000-80,000.
One other high lot of the sale shall be 4 LeNell’s Crimson Hook Rye barrels, among the many most celebrated rye whiskeys on this planet. Every barrel is estimated at $24,000-35,000, with 852 bottles current throughout all 4 barrels. The gathering additionally options historic Outdated Fitzgerald Blackhawk bottlings and rarities from Buffalo Hint, Michter’s and Wild Turkey, which stand not solely as uncommon testimonies of expertise but additionally as historic symbols inside the whiskey neighborhood.
In line with Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s International Head of Whiskey & Spirits, the gathering is a testomony to the collectability of really uncommon bourbon and rye whiskey. “By no means earlier than have we witnessed a set of such sought-after bottles come to market from a single proprietor,” he mentioned in an announcement, noting that this isn’t solely essentially the most helpful American whiskey assortment ever to be supplied at public sale, but additionally essentially the most meticulously curated, that includes a few of the hardest-to-find bottles within the business. “This assortment is really a primary on this planet of American whiskey,” he added.
Sotheby’s continues to carry the document for the most costly whiskey ever bought at public sale: a Valerio Adami–labeled 60-Yr-Outdated from the Macallan Distillery, auctioned in London in November 2023 for $2.7 million (£2.2 million), practically double its excessive estimate. (The most costly ever bought is a 30-year-old bottle of The Emerald Isle from The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. bought to collector Mike Daley for $2.8 million.) A number of Macallan 1926 bottles have since bought within the excessive six-figure to low seven-figure vary in 2024 and 2025 auctions, with many reaching costs between $1.5 million and $2.5 million, relying on label, situation and provenance.
Whereas the whiskey public sale market, after a major growth between 2016 and 2022, skilled a pointy correction from 2023 to 2024, renewed momentum in collectible spirits—whiskeys particularly—is clear in latest public sale outcomes. Final October, Sotheby’s charity sale, Distillers One among One, held at Hopetoun Home close to Edinburgh, totaled $3.9 million, together with patrons’ premiums, with $3.1 million donated to the Youth Motion Fund to assist coaching and education schemes in Scotland. Thirty new whiskey data had been set in the course of the single sale, led by the Glenlivet SPIRA 1965 60-Yr-Outdated, which bought for $693,682, a home document for the distillery. In line with Knight Frank’s The Wealth Report, within the decade main as much as 2025, uncommon whiskey costs have soared 192 %—and that excludes the downturn that started in 2022.
Latest outcomes level to a interval of restoration following the boom-and-bust cycle, and a few consultants see this as an opportune second to start amassing. As Simon Aron of Cask Commerce famous in Cash Week, costs for some casks—significantly new-make whiskey, the spirit simply entered into cask—are presently “unbelievable.” He factors to Tormore barrels priced at £1,995 for example of sturdy worth in new-make whiskey, in addition to a three-year-old cask of Glenburgie at £2,750 for collectors in search of one thing barely extra mature.
In the meantime, within the uncommon wine market, Setting Wines 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon (6 liters) holds the document for the most costly wine ever bought at public sale, reaching $1 million in November 2021 on the Emeril Lagasse Basis charity sale. The earlier document had been set by Sotheby’s, with a 1945 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti fetching $558,000 (£422,801; €481,976) together with premium in New York on October 13, 2018—seventeen occasions its unique $32,000 estimate.
One other notable single-owner sale, The Cellar of William I. Koch: The Nice American Collector, held at Christie’s New York in June 2025, achieved $28.8 million, marking the best such sale in North America. The public sale was led by a 1999 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Methuselah (6 liters), which bought for $275,000.
Returning to spirits, The Nice American Whiskey sale may set new benchmarks within the class. The public sale shall be a part of Visions of America, a week-long public sale and occasion collection celebrating American artwork, objects and innovation within the lead-up to the nation’s 250th anniversary—one other play that would additional deepen Sotheby’s engagement with the broader market.
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