When thinking of Scotch and Whisky, most of us just assume we are talking about Scotland. Maybe Ireland, or even the U.S. Just don’t forget about Japan. Suntory’s Yamazaki 55 year old single malt whisky sold obsession with quality and that has driven the heart of its monetary value.

Collectors Dashboard first covered the release in select global markets and its anticipated debut in global travel retail. Since the official release into global travel retail on October 25, 2021 the originally priced $60,000.00 (or so) Japanese Whisky has been explosive in resale value.

Collectors Dashboard evaluates collectibles as an alternative asset class. The collectibles sector also includes fine wine and whisky, and some purchases (say $800,000.00 or so for a bottle) may be more than a typical stock or bond investment.

Before getting into the detailed sale prices that have been realized, there does need to be a warning here. There are certainly some sales that may not have been captured or which were misreported. It is impossible to capture all of the sales, and of course currency conversions into dollars may skew some of the details. And for “record” prices, that is also based only what has been reported and seen.

A high auction price realization of $795,667.03 for one bottle of Yamazaki 55-year old single malt whisky sold by Bonhams on August 21, 2020 in Hong Kong has led many sales of the desired bottle.

According to Whiskey Raiders www.whiskeyraiders.com:

• Tickets for tastings of Yamazaki 55 sold last year for between $5,000 and $25,000 per person.
• On January 14, 2022 The Unifree Duty Free shop at the Istanbul airport announced that it had sold a bottle for $556,376.00. A store in Amsterdam auction sold a bottle at auction for $770,000.00.

Right now Dekanta has one available for $950,000.00 on their website:

What Whiskey Raiders cleared up was beyond the 100 bottles released in both 2020 and 2021 Suntory had a number of them allocated to key travel retail partners.

Here are other sales of the desired bottle found by Collectors Dashboard:

The Yamazaki 55 Year Old sold by Sotheby’s Auction for $525,000.00 on December 11, 2021. The original estimate was between $400,000.00 and $700,000.00.

Delhi Duty Free operates at Indira Gandhi International Airport and had initially secured one of the 100 bottles released from 2021 according to the leading provider of duty free and travel retail news TRBusiness. The bottle sold on November 11, 2021 for $61,000.00.

As demand rises expect more niche locations such as duty free stores to make news with remarkable sales. Of course the collector could pay the buy it now price of $950,000.00 Dekanta and they will ship it anywhere in the world. One thing is for certain and that is that Suntory has created an investable whiskey and both collectors and investors can expect to hear about The Yamazaki 55 year old whisky in the near future.