METHVEN-based Strathearn Distillery last year sold its first 100 bottles of whisky through Perth-based Whisky Auctioneer, earning them between £315 and £4150 per 50cl bottle of three-year-old scotch, according to an industry report published yesterday.

Macallan, which has its distillery in Moray, also took advantage of the auction market; accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the market for all bottles sold and 22 per cent of the total value. The next closest distillery from a volume and value perspective was Islay-based Ardbeg, with an eight per cent share of both volume and value.

For the Macallan’s market defining 18-year-old vintage collection, prices rose as high as £46,000 at end 2016.

The report suggested that those figures proved that traditional retail routes were being overlooked in favour of auction for primary market releases.

Indeed, both the volume and value of rare Scotch whisky sold at auction increased by record amounts. The value of collectable bottles of sold at auction in the UK rose by 48.64 per cent to a record £14.21 million – up from £9.56m in 2015. The number of bottles of single malt scotch whisky sold at auction in the UK increased by 35.21 per cent to 58,758. A year earlier it was 43,458.

Whisky investment analyst Andy Simpson said: “The growth in both volume and value has made rare whisky a more popular and more accessible ‘passion investment’. The online auction market has also made it much easier to buy and sell.”