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A collection
of 290 bottles of the highly sought
after Karuizawa Japanese Whisky to be
sold at auction.
Karuizawa Japanese whisky has become
one of the world’s most coveted whiskies
by connoisseurs and collectors around
the world since the distillery stopped
production in back in 2000.
As time passes bottles are getting rarer
and rarer at auction and prices continue
to rise so I am sure there are a few of
you who will be pleased to hear that the world’s largest known collection
of rare and collectable Karuizawa whisky
will go under the hammer in
an online auction which is being hosted by Whisky
Auctioneer (www.whiskyauctioneer.com).
The collection of 290 bottles, which had
been built up over the last 10 years by
a European collector, has an estimated
value of more than £500,000.
The collection being auctioned by
Perth (Scotland) based Whisky Auctioneer
covers almost every expression created
by the renowned Japanese distillery. It
is the first time such an extensive
collection has been made available for
auction anywhere in the world.
Amongst the lots on offer will be a
bottle of Karuizawa 1960 which last sold
at auction in Hong Kong for £96,000 in
2015 setting a new record for a Japanese
whisky. Over 230 of the bottles are
single casks and include some
exceptionally rare bottlings such as the
1963 50 Year Old and the 1964 48 Year
Old bottled for Wealth Solutions,
Poland.
Excluding the highly rare bottle of
1960, the average price paid for each
bottle within the collection is expected
to top £2,000, although some of these
bottles are likely to sell for
considerably more.
Whisky Auctioneer will open bidding for
the 290 lots at 11.00am (GMT+1) on
Wednesday 5th April and close the
auction from 7pm on Monday 17th April.
The sale is a coup for Perthshire firm
Whisky Auctioneer which specialises in
auctioning fine, old, rare and
collectable whisky. In recent years,
collectors have flocked towards Japanese
distilleries, whose reputations and
values have rocketed in the booming
secondary market. According to rare
whisky experts and analysts Rare Whisky
101, the RWK (Rare Whisky Karuizawa)
Index, which tracks the performance of a
select collection of bottles from this
silent Japanese distillery, shows an
increase in value of more than 300%
since July 2013.
Karuizawa is not the only Japanese
distillery to benefit from such a rise
in stock. Last year, the most expensive
bottle of whisky to sell at an auction
in the UK was a bottle of Yamazaki 50
year old which sold for £62,600.
Iain McClune, founder and owner of
Whisky Auctioneer, collected the bottles
personally and transported them back to
Scotland, Iain commented: "A collection
of this size from one of the world’s
most collectable distilleries has never
previously been seen at auction, so
we’re absolutely thrilled to have fought
off some stiff competition to lead the
sale.
"While we’ve seen a lot of our business
come from within the UK and Europe, this
particular collection is likely to have
global appeal. We expect to see some
significant interest from rare whisky
collector hotspots such as the US,
Taiwan and of course, Karuizawa’s
homeland of Japan."
Occasionally bottles of
Karuizawa do come available from specialist online
whisky retailers such as
Master of Malt
and of course
The Whisky Exchange who have in the
past released a number of
Karuizawa bottlings which were exclusive
to the London based whisky shop.
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