A rare bottle of Yamazaki whisky sold for an astonding HK$6.6 million ($843,000) at Bonham's, double its pre-sale estimate.
Yamazaki is the oldest and most prestigious whisky distillery in Japan, and this particular 50-year-old was distilled in the mid-1950s and bottled in 2003 to mark the 50th anniversary of Club Natsume, a private members’ club in Nagoya, Japan.
It was never intended for sale, and has become a unicorn for collectors. Before appearing at Bonhams Hong Kong on May 30th, it had never been auctioned. For anyone intent on owning one, this stood as possibly the one and only opportunity to do so.
So it proved irresistible, far surpassing the previous record for a Japanese whisky held by a bottle of Yamazaki 55 Year Old at $645,000. Including buyer’s premium, the buyer will be handing over $1m. That is a hugely significant figure, as the only other standard sized bottle of wine or spirit to reach that mark is The Macallan 1926.
While shifting exchange rates and buyer discretion will stop confirmation of whether the mark was breached, this auction goes down as a step change for collectors of Japanese whisky.
Yamazaki 55 Year Old, which was released in 2020, reached that price due to pandemic-driven conditions in the market. It has since traded for significantly less than that record. The price of the Club Natsume bottle feels like it can only go one way – up.
The difference between the two liquids is stark. Yamazaki 55 Year Old was released to the public, first via lottery in Japan and then on the international circuit. There were 200 bottles, and the opportunity to make money with a quick flip meant many soon appeared at auction.
In comparison, the Club Natsume expression was never meant for public sale. It is a single cask, fully aged in Japanese Mizunara oak, and gifted to an exclusive members’ club where it likely sat unappreciated for years.
Those are prime circumstances for true value and rarity – a diamond in the rough, the value of which only revealed itself over time. It’s an origin story that cannot be manufactured.
And it was not the only record-setting lot in what turned out to be a remarkable auction. A bottle of Karuizawa 52 Year Old Treasure Ship sold for $638,000 to become the most expensive ever from the ghost distillery.
It took the record from a bottle from the same cask (#5627), of which just 41 bottles were extracted. It remains the oldest Karuizawa ever bottled, with each of the 41 decanters depicting its own piece of original artwork.
