It’s ‘the Whisky Olympics’—Ultra-Rare and One-off Bottles Head to Auction at Sotheby’s

An ultra-rare whisky auction, known as the Distillers One of One, has announced its second edition will take place next month at Hopetoun House on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland.

In partnership with Sotheby’s, the auction brings together a collection of one-off Scotch whiskies specially created and donated by leading distilleries across Scotland.

Headlining the sale is the highest valued lot, Bowmore STAC 55 Years Old, the oldest whisky the island distillery’s ever produced. It’s housed in a 1.5-litre hand-blown glass vessel that pays homage to Bowmore’s home on the island of Islay. The lot is estimated to sell for between £300,000 and £500,000 (roughly between US$371,900 and US$619,770).

The auction “represents all of the best elements of this industry: the community spirit, the rarity of the liquid, the creativity of the presentation, and, above all, the charitable nature,” says Jonny Fowle, global head of spirits at Sotheby’s.

Headlining the sale is the highest valued lot, Bowmore STAC 55 Years Old,.
Courtesy of Sotheby’s

Also of note is the 50-year-old Brora Iris (with an estimate between £200,000 and £400,000), the oldest Brora single malt that has ever been bottled and one that will never be made commercially available. The liquid is presented in a 1.5-litre decanter that’s suspended within a handcrafted stone sculpture. The bottle was designed to represent the eye of a Scottish Wildcat, the highly elusive native of the Scottish Highlands that is the emblem of the distillery.

Proceeds of the auction will be donated to the Distillers’ Charity, principally to the Youth Action Fund, which aims to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people in Scotch whisky-making communities.

The first Distillers One of One was held at Barnbougle Castle, also near Edinburgh, in December 2021. That auction featured more than 39 lots and achieved record-breaking hammer prices, with more than £2.4 million donated to The Distillers’ Charity.

“The success of the first auction was tremendous—the vision and work put in by the Distillers’ Charity supported by the contributions from the Scotch whisky industry has established a new force in Scotland to back our young people in extremely difficult times,” John Swinney, former deputy first minister of Scotland, said in the catalog notes.

Scheduled for Oct. 5, the auction—a ticketed event for which all attendees must be registered—will feature 39 lots with estimates ranging from £2,000 to £500,000. Collectors can place online bids in advance; a selection of lots is currently on view in Sotheby’s New Bond Street galleries in London through Sept. 20.

The entire operation is dependent on the generosity of some of the most revered brands in the field, with producers both new and old presenting exceptional whiskies, all in the name of charity. In addition to the rare bottles, casks and experiences donated for sale, the brands also provide support to make the event possible.

The Visionary (which has an estimate between £50,000 and £90,000), is a single malt that has been aged 68 years.
Courtesy of Sotheby’s

Other offerings at the sale include the Visionary (with an estimate between £50,000 and £90,000), a single malt that has been aged 68 years, making it one of the oldest whiskies to be released by Speyside’s historic Glen Grant Distillery.

Another unique item for sale is the Gordon & MacPhail Recollection Showcase (with an estimate between £80,000 and £160,000). Housed in a handcrafted cabinet made of elm and oak, the offering features five engraved Glencairn decanters. Each contains a one-off 70-cl single malt from five distilleries that have been lost or silent for decades.

“A wiser man than me described this as being ‘the whisky olympics,’ Fowle says. “I cannot wait to be on the rostrum for this auction and see how we can develop this project into 2025.”

It’s go time for the highest-stakes mission at NASA in more than 50 years.

On April 1, the agency is set to launch four astronauts around the moon, the deepest human spaceflight since the final Apollo lunar landing in 1972.

The launch window for Artemis II , as the mission is called, opens at 6:24 p.m. ET.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration teams have been preparing the vehicles to depart from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on the planned roughly 10-day trip. Crew members have trained for years for this moment.

Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, said he doesn’t fear taking the voyage. A widower, he does worry at times about what he is putting his daughters through.

“I could have a very comfortable life for them,” Wiseman said in an interview last September.

“But I’m also a human, and I see the spirit in their eyes that is burning in my soul too. And so we’ve just got to never stop going.”

Wiseman’s crewmates on Artemis II are NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Photo: NASA’s Artemis II SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft being rolled out at night. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images

What are the goals for Artemis II?

The biggest one: Safely fly the crew on vehicles that have never carried astronauts before.

The towering Space Launch System rocket has the job of lofting a vehicle called Orion into space and on its way to the moon.

Orion is designed to carry the crew around the moon and back. Myriad systems on the ship—life support, communications, navigation—will be tested with the astronauts on board.

SLS and Orion don’t have much flight experience. The vehicles last flew in 2022, when the agency completed its uncrewed Artemis I mission .

How is the mission expected to unfold?

Artemis II will begin when SLS takes off from a launchpad in Florida with Orion stacked on top of it.

The so-called upper stage of SLS will later separate from the main part of the rocket with Orion attached, and use its engine to set up the latter vehicle for a push to the moon.

After Orion separates from the upper stage, it will conduct what is called a translunar injection—the engine firing that commits Orion to soaring out to the moon. It will fly to the moon over the course of a few days and travel around its far side.

Orion will face a tough return home after speeding through space. As it hits Earth’s atmosphere, Orion will be flying at 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The capsule is designed to land under parachutes in the Pacific Ocean, not far from San Diego.

Water photo: NASA’s Orion capsule after its splash-down in the Pacific Ocean in 2022 for the Artemis I mission. Mario Tama/Press Pool

Is it possible Artemis II will be delayed?

Yes.

For safety reasons, the agency won’t launch if certain tough weather conditions roll through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area. Delays caused by technical problems are possible, too. NASA has other dates identified for the mission if it doesn’t begin April 1.

Who are the astronauts flying on Artemis II?

The crew will be led by Wiseman, a retired Navy pilot who completed military deployments before joining NASA’s astronaut corps. He traveled to the International Space Station in 2014.

Two other astronauts will represent NASA during the mission: Glover, an experienced Navy pilot, and Koch, who began her career as an electrical engineer for the agency and once spent a year at a research station in the South Pole. Both have traveled to the space station before.

Hansen is a military pilot who joined Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009. He will be making his first trip to space.

Koch’s participation in Artemis II will mark the first time a woman has flown beyond orbits near Earth. Glover and Hansen will be the first African-American and non-American astronauts, respectively, to do the same.

What will the astronauts do during the flight?

The astronauts will evaluate how Orion flies, practice emergency procedures and capture images of the far side of the moon for scientific and exploration purposes (they may become the first humans to see parts of the far side of the lunar surface). Health-tracking projects of the astronauts are designed to inform future missions.

Those efforts will play out in Orion’s crew module, which has about two minivans worth of living area.

On board, the astronauts will spend about 30 minutes a day exercising, using a device that allows them to do dead lifts, rowing and more. Sleep will come in eight-hour stretches in hammocks.

There is a custom-made warmer for meals, with beef brisket and veggie quiche on the menu.

Each astronaut is permitted two flavored beverages a day, including coffee. The crew will hold one hourlong shared meal each day.

The Universal Waste Management System—that’s the toilet—uses air flow to pull fluid and solid waste away into containers.

What happens after Artemis II?

Assuming it goes well, NASA will march on to Artemis III, scheduled for next year. During that operation, NASA plans to launch Orion with crew members on board and have the ship practice docking with lunar-lander vehicles that Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have been developing. The rendezvous operations will occur relatively close to Earth.

NASA hopes that its contractors and the agency itself are ready to attempt one or more lunar landing missions in 2028. Many current and former spaceflight officials are skeptical that timeline is feasible.

It’s ‘the Whisky Olympics’—Ultra-Rare and One-off Bottles Head to Auction at Sotheby’s

The lunar flyby would be the deepest humans have traveled in space in decades.