Wine and Spirits Sales at Sotheby’s Grew 12% Last Year to $127.5 M.

As we have reported many times over the past year, this news is not great for the global spirits market. Still, despite distilleries suspending production and corporate sales figures falling, the auction market for rare and expensive whiskey appears to be a bright spot. One of the leading auction houses, Sotheby’s, released its 2025 Wine and Spirits Market Report late last week, detailing a range of information showing how its performance is outperforming overall market trends.

The report shows that auction sales in 2025 will total US$127.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 12%. One-third of the buyers are new to Sotheby’s, more than half are under the age of 50 and come from 63 different countries around the world. Some of the highlights of 2025 are the partnership with Scotland’s Distillers One of One auction, which includes 39 ultra-rare and aged whiskeys from 35 companies and distilleries. The total transaction volume of this auction reached 3.9 million US dollars, far exceeding the pre-sale estimate.

Sotheby’s has also partnered with certain distilleries to auction off one-off bottlings for charity, including Bowmore’s Arc-54 Iridos, Macallan Distil Your World Mexico Single Cask Edition and The Dalmore 52 Year Old Luminary No.3 – The Rare. In January, a bottle of 20-year-old Old Rip Van Winkle sold for $162,500, setting an auction record and becoming the most expensive American whiskey ever sold at auction. “Our 2025 results underscore the strength and momentum of Sotheby’s Wine & Spirits business,” Nick Pegna, global head of Sotheby’s Wine & Spirits, said in a statement. “This success is driven by a truly international buyer base, strong growth of new collectors, and our deep expertise in presenting landmark single-owner collections.”

Sotheby’s isn’t the only one showing positive signs in the auction market. Unicorn Auctions, founded in 2020, also reported strong results for 2025 (full disclosure – I’m also the editor of the company’s independent editorial site, Unicorn Review). The company has lifetime sales of more than $175 million and nine million bids on more than 500,000 bottles. That includes last fall’s record-setting auction in partnership with the Chicago Blackhawks, which raised nearly $400,000 through the sale of bottles such as very, very old Fitzgerald 18-year-old “Blackhawk” bourbon produced by Stitzel-Weller. Unicorn also reports that its customer base is much broader than is typical for auction houses. Christie’s auction house also recently released news of two barrels of whiskey from Japan’s Karuizawa Oni Distillery, which sold for a record-breaking £4.25 million (approximately $5.7 million).

It is expected that 2026 will continue to be a good year for all these auction houses. It seems that although people are consuming less alcohol and spending less money buying brand-name wines from traditional producers, there are still a small but significant number of collectors eager to get their hands on rare bottles. To this end, Sotheby’s has just announced its 2026 Whiskey & Whiskey Auction, which includes bottles from the Dayton Ong Collection, such as the Macallan Fine & Rare Collection, Glenfiddich 64 Year Old 1937 Whiskey (the oldest vintage from the famous distillery), a two-gallon bottle of Plankinton Reserve Cedar Brook Whiskey distilled in 1903, and a large 1.5 liter bottle of Black Maple Hill 19 Year Old Bourbon.