Top tipple: Brace of rare Irish whiskey sells for €94,000

Two bottles of rare Irish whiskey sold for a combined €94,000 at auction recently, setting new records in the process.

Collectors paid €48,000 and €46,000 each for Midleton very rare whiskeys released in 2020 and 2021 through specialist website, irishwhiskeyauctions.com. The Midleton brand is owned by Irish Distillers.

A 45-year old single malt, Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery Collection Chapter One, fetched €48,000 – or €50,952 including fees – the highest price paid for an Irish whiskey at public auction.

It was one of just 48 bottles released two years ago in Ireland, Britain, France and the US, that sold for up to €35,000 when they went on the market.

Howard Schultz suspends buybacks as he returns to Starbucks

---

Pre-tax profits surge 170% to €31m at Harvey Norman during pandemic

---

Grocery sales fall more than 7% as inflation bites

---

Start-ups invited to retail in Brown Thomas Arnotts

---

A 1973 bottling of single pot still Old Midleton sold for €46,000, or €48,829 including fees.

Just 70 bottles of this whiskey were released last year, when they sold for €40,000.

Private collectors sold both whiskeys through the auction site. The sales followed irishwhiskeyauctions.com’s record-breaking €42,000 sale of a bottle of Chapter One in 2020.

Anthony Sheehy, founder and owner of irishwhiskeyauctions.com, said the the sales showed that the Irish spirit was commanding prices from collectors worldwide similar to premium Scotch and Japanese whiskeys.

“It is something that we should be shouting from the rooftops to show the fantastic growth and interest that exists for premium Irish whiskey,” he added.

Irish Distillers is shortly expected to release the third chapter of Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery.

The series of whiskeys, produced at the Co Cork distillery, will ultimately come to six chapters, released every year from 2020 to 2025.

The final release, in 2025, will be a 50-year-old spirit launched to celebrate the Midleton distillery’s 200th anniversary.

Anthony and Katie Sheehy founded irishwhiskeyauctions.com in 2018 in Dundalk. The company holds nine-day auctions once a month and now employs five people.

To date, the business has hosted 38 auctions, including three dedicated to memorabilia. It also runs charity auctions that have raised €50,000 for good causes.