S otheby’s first London whisky auction of 2025 presents one of the rarest bottles of whisky ever to be released: The Bowmore Iridos, a unique bottle of exclusive liquid adorned with an iridescent titanium lid offered exclusively at Sotheby’s for charity. Alongside this is a Balvenie Single Cask Trunk (also offered for charities: WWF and The King’s Trust), a literal treasure chest containing the rarest whisky available only from the William Grant private client team. Completing this sale are the final bottles from Kodawari, the most valuable Japanese Whisky Collection ever sold.
The Bowmore Arc-54 Iridos is a 1-of-1 whisky, produced in partnership with Aston Martin. This is an exclusive bottle containing a unique liquid for the sole purpose of being auctioned at Sotheby’s for charity.
To the untrained eye, this bottle may appear similar to Bowmore’s Arc-54 release, however the key signatures of this 1-of-1 bottle are its unique abv and iridescent lid.
This expression is crafted from some of Bowmore’s oldest vintage casks from the distillery’s golden 1960s era: a 1967 European oak butt, a 1968 Sherry butt and a 1968 American oak hogshead.
Proceeds from this auction will benefit the communities which support Suntory Global Spirit’s distilleries in Scotland.
Rarely in the current era do we see an item, which is privately owned, that has never come to auction. The Balvenie Private Cask Trunk is exactly this and more. This is not just a bottle of 50-year-old Balvenie, it is a trunk containing 10 bottles, individually labelled with unique artist prints and contained within a solid wooden case in a solid wooden trunk. What's more is that is is being offered by the owner for charity, with hammer proceeds to be shared between the WWF and The King's Trust.
The whisky in this trunk is all drawn from Sherry Butt #16560. This 1970 vintage cask was one selected for the William Grant private client group and disgorged in 2020 just 10 days before its 51st birthday. The cask was made available to purchase in its entirety to one single client. The opportunity to own one’s own single cask of The Balvenie is an honour bestowed upon just one client per year. There are very few Balvenie private client single casks in existence, and crucially this is the first time that any bottles from this extremely rare cask program have even been offered for sale.
To complete this project, The Balvenie team worked with award winning Scottish artist Paul Furneaux to create 220 individual labels from one piece of original art. The artwork itself was inspired by The Balvenie’s Cooperage, a barrel-making facility attached to the business 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 the Sherry Butt that matured this whisky to create a collage of paint imprints on canvas using various colours and hues to invoke the Scottish landscape of Speyside. An individual detail from the final piece was used to create each unique label
More details about the rarity of this whisky and painstaking creativity of its presentation can be found on the lot page.
For the budding whisky collector, or even for the seasoned connoisseur, it can be overwhelming to decide which bottles to collect. Many find themselves becoming loyal to a particular flavour profile, region or specific distillery. Others may find themselves buying based on the aesthetics of the bottle or, perhaps, the price bracket. Vintages can offer a very comprehensible framework for collectors, whether looking for something to mark a special anniversary, or gifting to a loved one on their birthday. Below is a timeline of key vintages present within this auction.
