Distillers One of One 2025: the whisky equivalent of A Hard Days Night
Unveiling the 2025 Distillers One of One lots, Andrew Hope, Lord Hopetoun, compared this year’s auction to The Beatles’ third record — “one of the greatest selling albums of all time”. Eloise Feilden headed to Sotheby’s to see the lots up close.
Last week, the Distillers One of One auction unveiled the final 15 lots for this year’s auction. With 39 ultra-rare whisky lots set to go under the hammer on 10 October at the historic Hopetoun House near Edinburgh, the auction is set to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity. The highest bid ever received for a Distillers One of One lot was £800,000.
Launched in 2021, the third iteration of the Distillers One of One taking place this year will look a little different. It was announced earlier this month that in advance of the live auction in Scotland, The Distillers Charity would host its first lot exhibition at Sotheby’s London on 19-30 September.
Unveiling the exhibition to press last night, Sotheby’s global head of spirits Jonny Fowle highlighted just how special this year’s auction is. “For the first time ever, we’ve managed to transform Sotheby’s, the biggest auction house in the world, into an exhibition of whisky,” he said.
More than 30 of the lots were on display in the room, all of which are open to bidding on the Sotheby’s website. And Fowle encouraged those in the room to start bidding now. “Every pound you bid goes directly to that charity,” he said. “If you bid £1 – which you can, there is no reserve on any one of these lots – you might win, and that pound would go to charity.”
Lord Hopetoun joked that this year’s sale would be the first after “the difficult second album”, referring to the second Distillers One of One auction which took place in 2023.
“For those of you who are fans, you will know that The Beatles’ third album was A Hard Day’s Night, one of the greatest selling albums of all time,” he said. “So I’m confident […] that we will eclipse what we had two years ago.”
The Distillers Charity is expecting roughly 200 people in the room on 10 October when the live auction takes place.
Beanie Geraedts-Espey, the charity’s managing director, said she is expecting guests “from all over the world”. She praised “the reach and the profile of this wonderful philanthropic initiative.”
Since the first auction in 2021, these events have raised £4.3 million (US$5.25 million), mainly for the Youth Action Fund, which supports disadvantaged young people in Scotland.
Addressing the room, Geraedts-Espey said: “No question, times are tough; 70% of respondents in a recent survey said that they felt the last 12 months have been tougher than ever. But happily, 84% of the young people that we have engaged say that their life feels more full of positivity and more optimistic as a result of working with us.”
She explained that the goal of the charity is to help young people in Scotland “gain the skills that they need to become employable and to feel resilient and able to enter the workplace and contribute to their communities, to their families and to society.”
The 39 one-off lots will be auctioned on Friday, 10th October 2025 , in collaboration with Sotheby’s.
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The final 15 lots include:
Adelphi Distillery Ltd presents The Adelphi Archive: a singular 29-Year-Old Single Malt from the now-lost Imperial Distillery
Estimate between £2,000 – £3,000
Arbikie Distilling Ltd is donating a cask of Highland Rye – a 100% Malted Barley Single Grain Scotch Whisky, distilled from the estate’s own Odyssey barley
Estimate between £7,000 – £12,000
The Artisanal Spirits Company plc presents Artisan Casks Ancient Alba ‘AON’ 52-year-old – a Blended Grain Scotch Whisky distilled in 1972, and the very first release from the new Artisan Casks programme
Estimate between £3,000 – £6,000
Coachbuilt Spirits Ltd, in collaboration with RESS Jewellery Ltd, has created Coachbuilt FW07 – a 50-Year-Old Blended Scotch Whisky, distilled in 1973, matured exclusively in sherry casks, and bottled on 22nd August 2025 at 46.6% ABV
Estimate between £5,000 – £9,000
Glen Moray Distillery Ltd presents Glen Moray 1995 Peated Cask Finish, a 30-year-old single malt marrying Speyside with a cask previously holding Islay peated whisky
Estimate between £3,500 – £7,000
Hunter Laing & Company Limited presents Hunter Laing’s Old & Rare Teaninich 51-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky distilled in 1973 and bottled exclusively for the Distillers One of One auction in 2025
Estimate between £3,500 – £6,000
InchDairnie Whisky Ltd is offering an opportunity to own a KinGlassie Single Malt Single Cask, to be filled in December 2025
Estimate between £5,000 – £10,000
J & G Grant has created a Glenfarclas Gallon of 58-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky, presented in a bespoke oak presentation box
Estimate between £24,000 – £45,000
Lindores Abbey has donated an opportunity to fill your own rare private cask of Lindores Single Malt Scotch Whisky, chosen by the head distiller
Estimate between £5,000 – £10,000
Master of Malt presents The Distillers One of One Whisky Cabinet: a curated collection of twenty-four of the world’s rarest whiskies, presented in a bespoke cabinet
Estimate between £3,000 – £6,000
The Glenturret has created Lineage by The Glenturret, a whisky spanning two generations, combining liquid from two 1987 casks and two 2005 casks
Estimate between £15,000 – £26,000
Dornoch Distillery Company Ltd is offering Thompson Bros – Mystery Malt, a series of four bottles created exclusively for the Distillers One of One Auction
Estimate on request
The Tomatin Distillery Co Ltd presents a Cask of Tomatin Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky, distilled on 4th April 2014 and matured in a 1st-fill bourbon cask (Cask No. 2263). Selected by Master Distiller Graham Eunson who retired in May 2025
Estimate between £10,000 – £20,000
Whisk-E unveils Arran to Japan –The Journey, a one-of-a-kind bottling from Cask #2/1995, the second cask ever filled at Lochranza Distillery on Arran
Estimate between £2,000 – £3,000
Young Spirits Company Ltd is offering Ferg & Harris – Wings Over Kintyre, a 31-year-old organic Springbank single malt, distilled in 1992 and finished in a 1.2-litre oak cask previously holding organic Grande Champagne cognac from 100% Folle Blanche grapes
Estimate between £2,400 – £3,500
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