Press Release..

Sukhinder Singh, co-founder of leading global whisky retailer The Whisky Exchange, is putting part of his miniatures collection up for auction viaWhisky.Auction from Sunday 15th August, including some very rare examples of early bottlings.

Sukhinder will be selling 400 miniatures from his collection amassed over several decades, many matching the full bottles he also owns. The majority of the miniatures are single malt or blended Scotch, but there are also some gin, cognac and rum lots too. Highlights from the auction include:

·       An extremely rare 1940s Glenfiddich Special with box

·       The only known example of a miniature bottled by Gordon & Macphail – a 1930s Glen Grant – believed to be the first miniature they ever bottled

·       A pair of very old Cardhu sales samples, believed to be the only known examples with a UK label

·       Close to 100 beautiful old blended scotch whiskies, mostly bottled in the 1930s & 1940s originally purchased from David Maund, chairman of the UK miniature bottle club for nearly two decades.

 

Well-known in the whisky world for his unrivalled collection of Scotch whisky, Sukhinder originally collected miniatures – building up a collection of 5000 different whisky miniatures by the early 2000s. He sold this collection to focus on old and rare bottles of malt, but has continued to collect some miniatures ever since. He will be selling the majority of his current miniatures collection in this auction, reserving just 100 that he cannot part with, focusing on collecting one from each distillery. 

 

When asked about the market for whisky miniatures, Sukhinder said: “there are two types of people who buy miniatures, the collector and the drinker. Miniature collecting has been going on since miniatures began back in the early 1900s. In the early years I remember buying  a number of collections from people who had been collecting for over 40 years. What I do like about miniatures is that large collections are easier to display. Each miniature tells a story of the liquid and the distillery.

“Over the last five or so years as prices for bottles of the rarer single malts have increased, more people are looking at miniatures of the same so they can open and try the liquid. In some cases the miniatures seem to work out cheaper by the measure than buying a large bottle.

“At one point some 20 years ago, I thought miniature collecting would die out as it was difficult and costly to find miniatures from around the world. Then as the internet became more popular, it was much easier to find fellow enthusiasts and new miniatures. Over the last 10 years, the hobby has grown considerably and prices for rarer miniatures now fetch thousands of pounds.”

The collection will be sold as part of the quarterly miniatures and memorabilia auction from Whisky.Auction, which will be live from Sunday 15th August, with lots beginning to close from 7.30pm Tuesday 24th August.