Auction Debut for One of the Rarest Offerings Ever from The Balvenie Distillery – Auction Whisky News
Auction Debut for One of the Rarest Offerings Ever from
The Balvenie Distillery
Hammer Proceeds from the Sale of
The Balvenie Private Cask Trunk to be Donated to WWF and The King’s Trust
Online Auction Open for Bidding Until 29 May
LONDON, 19 May 2025 – An exceptional opportunity to acquire one of the rarest offerings ever from The Balvenie – or from any whisky distillery – is currently underway at Sotheby’s in London. Bidding is now open on a sale of Finest Whisky, in which The Balvenie 50 Year Old Private Cask #16560 Trunk is a headline lot. Quite literally a treasure chest, the appearance of this hyper-rare item containing 10 bottles of single cask 50-year-old whisky from The Balvenie Distillery marks the first time that any bottles from The Balvenie’s rare cask programme have been seen at auction.
Every one of the 220 bottles produced from this cask – and the 22 wooden trunks in total in which they are housed – is owned by one collector, who has kindly chosen to consign one of the trunks to auction in order for the sale proceeds from the hammer price to be donated to two charities: WWF and The King’s Trust. Carrying an estimate of £240,000-450,000, The Balvenie Private Cask Trunk is available to collectors until 29 May only.
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s Global Head of Whisky & Spirits, said: “This unusual trunk represents not only ten fantastically old and rare bottles of whisky with exceptional presentation, but more importantly, it is a glimpse into the secret world within the upper echelons of whisky collecting. The rarest offering from Balvenie has finally become public and all for the benefit of two very worthy charities.”Cask #16560 is one of the few casks ever to be selected for the William Grant & Sons Private Client cask offer “event sale”, an annual programme in which only one cask selected from The Balvenie will be offered to one lucky private buyer and bottled for them that year. This Sherry Butt was selected by The Balvenie Malt Master, David C. Stewart MBE, for its extraordinary richness of character and depth of colour and bottled in 2021. On 14 December that year, Cask #16560 was removed from its home at The Balvenie distillery where it lay for nearly 51 years in order to be transformed into 220 dark sherry whisky bottles.
The cask itself went on to become not just the inspiration for, but the tools with which the labels were designed. For the label design concept, The Balvenie team worked with award-winning Scottish artist Paul Furneaux to commission an original artwork, from which 220 individual and unique labels were produced.
The starting point was a visit to The Balvenie’s Cooperage, a barrel-making facility that allows this particular distillery to control quality and creativity in their cask curation. Borrowing from a traditional lithography technique, Furneaux used the oak staves from Sherry Butt #16560 to create a collage of paint imprints on canvas using various colours and hues to invoke the Speyside landscape that surrounds the distillery. Once Furneaux’s vision was complete and the paint had been applied to canvas as a finished work, the final piece was scanned and then divided into 220 individual equal portions, one for each hand-applied label, giving every bottle from the cask its own unique appearance.
On the back of each bottle is another label containing the details of the liquid. Each label is individually numbered, and each bottle is packed in a matching wooden presentation case with a corresponding number etched into the top. For more information and detailed imagery of the production process, please click here.
The ten bottles are each contained with a carved wooden presentation case fixed with brass tube hinges. The cases have been lovingly produced and finished by hand and measured perfectly to fit the trunk itself. The solid oak trunk is laser engraved and gold gilded with the cask number and The Balvenie logo, then finished with Renaissance wax. For more information on the production process of these presentation cases, please click here.
The WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) is a global conservation organization that works to protect the environment and preserve biodiversity. It focuses on issues like wildlife conservation, climate change, deforestation, oceans and freshwater ecosystems, and promoting sustainable practices. The WWF partners with governments, communities, and businesses to create long-term solutions for a healthier planet.
The King’s Trust, formerly known as The Prince’s Trust, is a UK-based charity founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales). Its mission is to support young people aged 11 to 30 who are facing challenges such as unemployment, educational difficulties, mental health issues, or risk of exclusion. The Trust offers programs that help young individuals build confidence, gain skills, and find pathways into education, employment, or entrepreneurship. Since its inception, The King’s Trust has assisted over a million young people in the UK and has expanded its reach internationally, operating in more than 20 countries. Through various initiatives, it continues to empower youth to transform their lives and achieve their potential.
About Sotheby’s
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