What Affects The Price Of Signatory Vintage Whisky
Selling Signatory Vintage 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 Signatory Vintage whisky quickly, stress-free, and for the best price. We make selling whisky online easy with Mark Littler Ltd.
How We Can Help You Sell Your Whisky
Simply fill in the form below and we will put you in contact with a specialist whisky retailer. If your bottle is suitable they will make you an offer directly for your bottle. This is perferable for those wanting a quick sale, or for those who are not prepared to take the risk that auctions entail. There is no charge for our assistance if you accept a private sale.
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
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.
What To Look For
Signatory Vintage Dumpy
Signatory Vintage’s Dumpy bottles are famous for their unique presentation and brightly coloured labels. They have released over 500 bottles in this style that was presented in a square box, lined with leather or velvet, in a colour of the client’s choice. The original Dumpy bottle comes with a gold-capped stopper cork, typically they were 75cl at 57.9% ABV, however this changed in 1992 when new regulations changed the volume of bottles from 75cl to 70cl.
The Dumpy is as famous for its labels as for the whisky itself and has undergone a vast progression over the years, but always utilising its signature typeface and artwork. The ‘ink’ label was the first label used for the collection and even after they changed it for the ‘Cask Label’ the ink style was still used for US releases.
The cask label followed the ink label in infamy, it includes an image of a cask, baring the Signatory calligraphy ‘S’. The stopper corks varied between gold and black, also baring the ‘S’. Some very rare single malts have been released under this label, including Glenflager and Kilyloch (the Glenflager was sealed with a screw top). A 29-year-old cask-labelled Signatory Vintage Clynelish 1965 recently sold for £5,100.
Signatory Vintage also released a selection of limited-edition bottles, themed around Christmas or dates marking anniversaries for the distillery or their distributors.
Vintage Collection
Signatory have released over 500 bottlings in their vintage collection, created in 1992. The collection generally consists of single malts less than 20 years old, presented in a classic tall bottle at 43% proof. The label follows the same format as the Dumpy bottles, listing the vintage, age, type of cask, cask number and number of bottles on the label. They were displayed in round tubes, initially made of card and later of metal. Bottles were all in the 70cl size and sealed with the cork stopper and bear the classic cask label.
The label for this collection evolved again in the late nineties, losing the familiar cask image in favour of gold lettering, with the Signatory ‘S’ and a gold feather; the label itself became much smaller, with the colouring of the background changing from white to an off-white duck-egg blue.
In 1999 they produced a specialist Millennium Edition with a white label. In this range they also produced a few rare magnums at 150cl, including the Caol Ila 1989, Highland Park 1988, Macallan 1990 and Rosebank 1990.
Signatory also produced some rare casks in a limited-edition bottle, which looked like a hybrid of the traditional tall bottle and the dumpy style, these were presented in a mahogany coloured wooden box, embellished with a gold plaque detailing the distillery and year of bottling. In further celebration of the millennium Signatory also bottled a 1965 Glen Grant in a decanter, which they sold with a miniature bottle of whisky included.
A bottle of 40-year-old Springbank 1969 Signatory Vintage recently sold for £6,999.
Silent Stills
One of the most interesting bottles produced by Signatory Vintage is the Silent Stills collection, which consisted of a series of whiskies produced in closed distilleries. The new Signatory hybrid-style bottle was used for this and a new label was created.
This latest edition of the Signatory label was purple in colour and included the usual information; date of distillation, bottling date, cask and bottle number, volume and ABV. The illustration is completely different than the Dumpy and Vintage Collection, digressing from the usual calligraphy ‘S’ and cask image, instead including an image of the distillery and two lion silhouettes.
The bottle is presented in a satin lined wooden case, including a miniature bottle and a piece of the cask it had been produced in. The miniatures included in this collection quickly became a collector’s item and are much sought-after.
The Six Factors That Affect The Price Of Signatory Vintage Whisky
There are six factors that will affect the price of your bottle of Signatory Vintage. 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 Signatory Vintage 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.”
What Is Your Whisky Worth
Do you want to know what your whisky is worth but don’t know where to start?
Use these guides to help you.
What Is Your Whisky Worth? – An in-depth look at the factors affecting your bottle’s value.
A Beginner’s Guide To Selling Whisky – Everything you need to get started selling your whisky.
How To Sell Whisky Online – A rundown of all the online selling options available.
Sell Your Whisky Today – A simple way to sell your whisky fast.
Macallan Specific Guides
The Complete Guide To Valuing Macallan Whisky – Selling Macallan? This is your starting point.
What Is Macallan Whisky Worth? – Unsure of your Macallan’s value? Begin here
The History Of Signatory Vintage
Signatory Vintage, owned by Andrew Symington, is a highly renowned and innovative independent bottler that often has somewhere in the region of 50 different single malt varieties at a time and include such diverse ranges as the Single Grain Collection, Cask Strength Collection and the Un-chill filtered collection.
Before establishing Signatory, Symington was assistant manager at the noted Prestonfield House Hotel. From there, he was responsible for critically acclaimed bottlings of Bowmore 1965 and a Springback 1967 with the Prestonfield House Label. This was the start of his career in the whisky bottling industry and where Signatory began.
It was in 1988 when Symington invested in what was at the time, the smallest bottling plant in Scotland, which gave him full control over the bottling process and set him apart from other organisations as a bona fide independent bottler. He started first with bottling Cask Strength whiskies, which was more-or-less unheard of during the 80s, with the Glenlivet 1968 Sherry-cask release.
In terms of quality, Signatory Vintage were more than a match for their main Scottish rivals, Gordon & MacPhail and Cadenhead. The company introduced some real innovations too, such as the number of bottles available, cask number and type of cask. Things that would greatly intertest whisky connoisseurs but were not often offered by other bottlers at the time. As if that wasn’t enough, they also hand numbered each label and bottled literally thousands of miniatures that were also hand numbered.
Signatory grew in prominence and became known for its Springback, Bowmore, Laphroaig and Ardbeg casks, along with the often-never-bottled and rarer Killyloch, Glen Glagler and Ben Wyvis brands. As of 2002, Symington bought the Edradour distillery in Pitlochry, and a building adjacent to it for all Signatory’s offices, bottling and bonding.
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.
