Dalmore Stillman's Dram 30 years old

[Velocette]

Greetings All,

I am new to this site and have signed up as I have just found this bottle of whisky. We moved house last year to a smaller property. I have found that a significant disadvantage of downsizing is that there is much less room, not only that all the ephemera collected over the years suddenly takes up twice as much space. I have spent some of the holidays manfully sorting out my treasures. Two thirds of my books have gone (I am an academic so it still leaves one or two), together with various collections of interesting things, known to my wife under the collective term of rubbish - fishing reels, first world war memorabilia, old computers, CD collection (now on iTunes) etc.

Now I happened to come across the bottle of whisky described in the title. It was a present some years ago from a relative who worked at the distillery. Not being whisky drinkers to any great extent, and certainly not aficionados, it gathered dust before disappearing until I found it again over the past day or two. The above mentioned wife suggested mixing it with dry ginger and disposing of it that way. As you can see she has no respect for fishing reels, first world war trench art and especially whisky.

I did a quick google search and was amazed to find that certain online retailers offer this, apparently the same bottle, for up to £525! Now of course retail and market prices are two different things but none the less presumably this is worth several hundred pounds? The bottle is in excellent condition with just a slight crinkle to one corner of the label, and it also has the box and swing tag. I would post a few photos if I could work out how to do it. I would welcome information about this bottle of whisky, I have had the odd bottle of rare and valuable wine and could go on (at some length) about NZ pinot noirs, but know nothing about this. I would be interested to know if it is particularly rare or has distinctive features about it. I haven't thought much about it but not having an appreciation for whisky myself I may well give/sell it, any thoughts on value and how to go about it (Ebay don't sell things like alcohol etc) would be interesting.

Thanks so much, and a happy new year to all, Velocette

[opelfruit]

Dalmore isn't really up my street, but think this range was discontinued in the late 90's (sure someone more familiar with Dalmore can confirm).

Over recent years Dalmore have pushed themselves into a super-premium market, mainly be packaging and advertising rather than liquid quality *cough* so they do fetch fair old prices. I'd say £500ish was a reasonable, if not conservative, estimate for that, but if you took it to auction there's a good chance it'd go for more as it's the type of thing a collector would snap up.

The other option is;

Some of those online retailers will actually buy the bottle off you, especially if its an old and discontinued item like this. The whisky eschange, MasterOfMalt and "Hard to Find Whiskies" all buy one-offs.

The downside is that you get less for it, but at auction you'd have to pay selling fee's and comission, so.....swings and roundabouts really.


There is 1 option that must not be taken; do not put anything in it, especially not dry ginger ale
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[Mark]

Stillman's Dram series was a series of special bottlings from Whyte and Mackay owned distilleries - The Dalmore, Isle of Jura, Tullibardine, Tamnavullin, Fettercairn and Invergordon. The series is now discontinued.

As you have say shop prices for the Dalmore Stillman's Dram 30 year old are around £500, but remember that these prices include taxes and the shops markup/profits. You would expect to fetch perhaps half this amount at auction, perhaps a lot more in a good day at auction. If you are looking to sell by auction then take a look at mctears.co.uk and scotchwhiskyauctions.co.uk

[Fine collector]

Would buy it off you for £215.

Let me know

[Velocette]

Thank you everybody for your very informative replies. This is very much an unknown area for me. I once paid £50 for a bottle of (rather disappointing) wine, so the idea of paying hundreds for a bottle of whisky seems extraordinary to me. I will check out the various suggestions made, and thank you also for an offer, most welcome and in the light of some of the comments and taking into account auction charges etc doesn't seem unreasonable. Sadly work, the curse of the drinking classes, intervenes over the next few days but I will follow up the comments as soon as possible.

Thanks so much, Velocette.

[Velocette]

Thanks for the comments which I have followed through. As I don't need the cash I thought I might as well keep this bottle in reserve and perhaps sell it in a few years time. So the more you chaps drink the more my bottle is worth. So cheers! We are all winning.

With thanks, Velocette
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Velocette