"A recent auction held by Sotheby's smashed records as the most valuable single-owner American whiskey collection ever sold at auction. The pre-sale estimates for this whiskey collection started at around $1.17 million, but the final sale price more than doubled that figure, coming in at over $2.5 million. All 360 lots in the collection sold in the live auction - held January 24, 2026, in New York City - with 89% of the lots exceeding the high-end of their pre-auction estimates."
"This was the first time that Sotheby's has held a live auction for a single-owner whiskey collection, doing so at the Breuer Building, the auctioneer's headquarters on Madison Avenue, and many of the clearly enthusiastic buyers fell outside the norm. Nearly all of the buyers at this auction were North American collectors, with around half of them under the age of 40 and one-third new to Sotheby's."
"Sotheby's put together a pop-up bar in the auction house, allowing potential buyers an up-close view of the collection before the auction. With the staggering quality of the bottles on display, it is easy to understand how laying eyes on a particular prize could set the palate to wondering and steel the determination of would-be collectors. Some of the standout bottles in The Great American Whiskey Collection"
Sotheby's sold a single-owner American whiskey collection for over $2.5 million, more than doubling pre-sale estimates of about $1.17 million. The live auction on January 24, 2026, in New York City saw all 360 lots sell, with 89% exceeding their high-end pre-auction estimates. The sale was the auction house's first live event for a single-owner whiskey collection, held at the Breuer Building on Madison Avenue. Nearly all buyers were North American, roughly half were under 40, and one-third were new to Sotheby's. A pop-up bar allowed close viewing, and highlights included Old Fitzgerald, Red Hook Rye, and Van Winkle bottles.
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