What Affects The Price Of Scotch Malt Whisky Society Whisky
Selling Scotch Malt Whisky Society whisky can seem like a daunting prospect. After all, there are so many ways that you can sell whisky. But which way is the most effective? And, how can you get the best price for your whisky? Well, that is where we come in.
At Mark Littler Ltd we can help you to sell your Scotch Malt Whisky Society whisky quickly, stress-free, and for the best price. We make selling whisky online easy with Mark Littler Ltd.
Free Specialist Whisky Valuations
Please use the form below to submit images of your bottle and receive a free, no-obligation valuation from a specialist auctioneer. We will also actively seek the highest offer from our network of private collectors to help you sell your whisky.
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Whisky Valuation Tips
Are you looking to sell your whisky for the highest possible price? It might surprise you to learn that one of the most important actions you can take is to capture high-quality images of your bottles. This ensures we can offer you the best prices and accurately appraise your bottles. Here are our top tips for submitting images of your bottles:
- Stand the bottle upright so that we can clearly see the level of the whisky in the bottle.
- Do you have the original box? If so, place it next to the bottle in the photo.
- Capture the images in a well-lit room, ideally against a neutral background.
How We Can Help You Sell Your Whisky
Our brokerage service is a simple, stress-free way to sell your bottles of whisky. We will broker the sale between you and one of our buyers. For this service, we charge a 10% commission (inc. VAT) of the final sale price of the item. This avenue is fast and simple. We will take care of everything for you.
Alternatively we can help you sell your bottles through auction. With close to 30,000 bottles being sold at auction every month you have to be sure that your bottles are being sold in the right auction to achieve the highest price. There is no charge for our assistance selling at auction
What Our Customers Say
What To Look For
It is difficult to find details regarding many of the early bottlings from the SMWS as they did not keep record, but approximately 4,000 bottles have been produced since 1983. However, despite their name, they did not just focus on Scotch whisky but later moved into the bottling of Irish and Japanese whiskies.
All bottles produced by the SMWS are numbered according to their distillery and bottle number, hence the first bottle produced was 1.1 (Glenfarclas was distillery number one). Each distillery has its own code, which you can find in the list below. Initially bottle numbers were handwritten in red ink, as with the date of distillation, bottling and ABV.
A bottle of SMWS Brora 1976 61.1 recently sold for £6,001. You will notice from the list that 61 is Brora’s distillery code, so this was the first whisky bottled at this destination.
The Six Factors That Affect The Price Of Scotch Malt Whisky Society Whisky
There are six factors that will affect the price of your bottle of Scotch Malt Whisky Society whisky. These are the age of the whisky, the bottling date, the vintage, whether it is a single cask edition, the level of the whisky and the condition of the label and box.
Age of whisky
This refers to the number of years the whisky has spent maturing in the cask, not how long it has been in the bottle. The age is indicated on the label and can vary from 3 to well over 30 years old.
Most collectible bottles are over 10 years old and value usually increases with the age of the whisky. Whisky over 30 years old is the most sought after as it is the rarest.
Any whisky bottled at over 50 years old is highly desirable and a very limited number of distilleries have released whisky over 50 years old.
Bottling date
This relates to when the whisky was bottled. As bottles from a specific year are consumed, the remaining bottles become rarer, so even a ‘standard’ malt released in the 1980’s can become sought after.
If vintage is not stated bottle volume can be an indicator of bottling era. Bottles from the 1970s and earlier use fluid ounces (FL.OZ). In the 1980s standard bottles size was 75cl and in 1991 the standard size (in the EU) changed to 70cl. Note that standard bottle size is still 75cl in the USA, and other bottle sizes are occasionally used, in which case you will have to use other indicators.
Distillation year
The distillation year might also be described as the bottle vintage, and refers to the specific year in which the whisky was distilled (made). It is one of the most important factors that can impact the price of your collectible whisky.
In general, the earlier the distillation year the more collectible your bottle of whisky. Bottles from the first half of the 20th century are highly valued by collectors and fetch a premium. That being said, the bottler is also important, and so two whiskies distilled in the same year, at the same distillery, but bottled by different bottlers will vary in value.
Label & packaging
The label on a bottle of collectible whisky is very important and should be in pristine condition to fetch the highest value. If the label is damaged in any way, such as scratching, blemishing, pealing or mould, then this will have a negative impact on the value.
The box condition is almost as important as the label condition, and the correct box is very important to collectors. A bottle with a damaged or marked box will be worth less, and a bottle without its original box could be worth up to 30% less.
Level
The level of the whisky has a large impact on the value. On almost all bottles it should be well into the neck, a level in the lower half of the neck is worth less and levels into the shoulder will significantly impact the value.
Older bottles are more prone to a drop in level as the bottles were not intended for storage. A drop in level implicates the long term storage prospects for any collector but as alcohol is more volatile than water it is the alcohol that will evaporate first, which impacts the flavour.
Single Cask Bottlings
Single cask bottlings are generally more sought after, as by default they are unique and usually of a significantly limited edition. Look out for numbers on your bottle like XXX/250, with the second number generally being less than 500, which would indicate a single cask edition.
Longer edition numbers such as XXX/5000 are often also collectible. These longer numbers usually indicate that the release is a vatting of a number of casks.
How We Can Help Sell Your Scotch Malt Whisky Society Whisky
Private Sale
Our brokerage service is a simple, stress-free way to sell whisky. We will broker the sale between you and one of our buyers. For this service, we charge a 10% commission (inc. VAT) of the final sale price of the item. This avenue is fast and simple. We will take care of everything for you.
Auction
At Mark Littler Ltd we can also help you to sell whisky via auction. We have teamed up with the country’s leading online whisky auctions to help you to sell whisky at auction without the hassle. This is a great option for lower-value bottles, or if you do not mind taking some risks.
Shop
The final option is selling your whisky through our one-of-a-kind online shop. On our shop, we broker the sale of high-value bottles for our customers. Your bottle will sit amongst rare and expensive whisky and our advertising campaigns aim to draw the eye of whisky collectors everywhere.
Do You Remember This Story?
In 2020 we sold a vertical of Macallan 18 year old for Matthew Robson for £44,000!
The story went viral being covered from the BBC, to India, to the USA.
Matthew had been given a bottle every year from his father as a birthday gift and at the time of sale amounted to 28 bottles, all with their original boxes.
Now We Can Help You
It was a pleasure to work with Matthew, assisting him in obtaining the highest possible amount for his collection. Now, let us use our experience and connections to assist you.
“I was looking to sell my whisky collection of 28 bottles of Macallan 18 year old to fund the purchase of my first house, so I got in touch with Mark.
My father gave me 1 bottle each year for a birthday present so that by the time that I was 18 I would have 18 bottles of 18 year old Macallan. (Yes I’m that guy who was plastered over the media)
Mark did a great job of getting professional photos taken of them and creating a PR buzz around the collection and I even ended up on BBC breakfast news, lad bible, and various radio stations around the world.
At one point my story was the second most viewed story on BBC world wide news app for the whole weekend with over 2 million views.
Needless to say within a day or two of this PR Campaign there was numerous offers.
I would like to thank Mark for all his work and helping me with everything.”
The History Of Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) is a highly exclusive club for members and independent bottler that was first formed by some friends in 1983 in the Scottish capital, the group purchases and bottles whiskies from over 125 distilleries around the world and then sells them on to members. Ben Tindall, an architect, W Gordon Smith, a writer, David Alison, a contractor, Russel Hunter, an actor and Philip ‘Pip’ Hills, a tax accountant started it all.
Philip Hills was already a scotch enthusiast and spent much of his free time travelling the country and tasting at different distilleries. The first purchase they made was a Glenfarclas cask that they occasionally drew bottles from to share among themselves. A short time later the noted Vaults building became available and the friends officially set up the SMWS and the first bottling commenced, appropriately numbered as 1.1 from the Glenfarclas – a sherry cask – was released. After which the society released bottles every month until their expansion.
Although Hills left the society in 1995, it continued as a private organisation. In 1996 it introduced a private share scheme that used the funds raised to purchase another member’s club, this time in London at Greville Street. It then opened a third base in Edinburgh, along Queen Street. However, this was subsequently purchased by Glenmorangie on the same year.
For its 25th anniversary the society made some striking changes, to both the label and the shape of the bottle. Then, further changes were made to their bottles for new releases during 2017 and onwards so that the styles of the whiskies were better emphasised.
There is no argument that The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is one of the most influential bottlers with regard to the popularity for single malts, not just throughout the UK, but around the world. They are noted as being one of the first to really promote the idea of single casks and bottling malts at cask strength.
Glenmorangie Plc purchased SMWS in 2004 and it later passed to private investors in 2015.
Send us details about your bottle directly via email or use the form below.
We contact our international network of customers for the best offers.
If you decide to proceed with an offer we issue you with a contract.
Send us your bottle. We have a fully insured courier service available.
We complete the sale with the buyer and send your funds via BACS.
