2022 Year In Review: Whisky Auctioneer
As 2023 rolls in, we wanted to take some time to reflect on all that 2022 has brought us at Whisky Auctioneer. We are delighted to have welcomed new customers, formed new industry partnerships and retained many of our long-standing clients – we would like to thank each and every one of you for your co-operation and support in the last year.
In 2023, Whisky Auctioneer will celebrate our 10th anniversary, and we are extremely excited to celebrate this and share some of our achievements over the last ten years – but until then here are (just) a few of our 2022 highlights. View our 2022 Year In Review Infographic.
+50,000 Whisky Lovers Around The World
We’re thrilled to announce our thriving Whisky Auctioneer community is now 50,000+ members strong (over 10,500 of you joined us in 2022).
When Iain launched Whisky Auctioneer in 2013, he envisioned it as a place for global whisky lovers to access bottles that were nearly impossible to find through traditional retail routes. Today, we’re elated to have reached this milestone, and to have created a new avenue for people to get involved in whisky by equipping enthusiasts with the knowledge to help them learn about the industry - whatever their experience levels.
We’re thankful to everyone who has contributed to this.
Global Reach
Whisky Auctioneer’s community of over 50,000 customers far and wide is growing every day. Experienced and first-time collectors come to Whisky Auctioneer to learn about, discover, and acquire whisky. From London to New York and Taiwan, over 100,000 global whisky lovers engage with Whisky Auctioneer across our website, email and social communications.
In 2022, we had over 3 million visits to whiskyauctioneer.com, and over 2.2 million bids were placed across over 115,000 lots! Our colleagues in the warehouse and logistics teams have been exceptionally busy dispatching thousands of shipments across the globe – 28,456 to be exact! As the business grew, so did our incredible team and we welcomed over 20 new staff members to roles in Client Services, Finance, Marketing and Operations.
New and Improved Services
Our customers, partners and the wider industry are always at the heart of what we do and so many of our improvements this year have centred around this.
Our most notable achievement here was the opening of our new London office in August 2022 - making selling with Whisky Auctioneer more effortless than ever before for those of you based in or around London. From London, our team supports customers looking to consign bottles for auction and oversees regular bottle collections covering the City of London and surrounding counties.
To celebrate the opening of our new office, we also hosted our first seller event at London Cru, the UK's first urban winery. Our Head of Client Services, Tom MacLaren, and Head Curator, Joe Wilson, were accompanied by our London-based team for a great evening meeting and sharing drams with some of you.
Staying Social
We continued to utilise our social channels to interact with nearly 100,000 of you from all corners of the globe. In 2022, we introduced new types of content across our Instagram, including interactive stories such as quizzes, games and polls to help test and increase your knowledge across a variety of whisky themes. Apparently you're all a big fan of them too, as more and more of you are interacting with us on social than ever before.
We also spent time creating more video content - from educational videos, to interviews with influential voices in the industry and partnerships. This included a video which explored the popularity of private barrel selections in American whiskey - featuring expert voices Joe Wilson (Whisky Auctioneer), Fred Minnick (Bourbon Expert and Author) and Millie Milliken (Freelance Spirits Journalist).
In May, we visited Edinburgh and interviewed Nadi Fiori, one of the most important pioneers in the history of single malt Scotch whisky, and learned about the beginnings of his independent bottling company, Intertrade. We also travelled to the Glenfiddich distillery in Dufftown, to capture content with Struan Grant Ralph and Ian McDonald which explored the story behind "The Cooper's Cask", a unique single malt Scotch whisky that was produced exclusively to raise funds for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
Struan Grant Ralph and Mark Thomson hosting a unique tasting for the Spirit of Speyside 2022 [Whisky Auctioneer]
Interested in what content you loved the most in 2022? Our Top Five most read articles were:
Secret Speyside Single Cask Collection Offered on Whisky Auctioneer
Whisky Auctioneer Shines a Light on Private Barrel Selects
Expert Guide to Collecting Bowmore
American Icons: The Enigmatic Story of Black Maple Hill
Shirakawa: The Japanese Distillery You’ve Never Heard Of
Our most interacted social post was this Mortlach, distilled in 1938 and bottled at 70 years old. This was released by Gordon & MacPhail in March 2010 and upon its release, was the oldest single malt in the world. Hardly ever seen on the secondary market, it is 1 of only 54 full size decanters produced.
Mortlach 1938 70 Year Old [Whisky Auctioneer]
Industry Collaboration
In 2022, we continued to build industry-leading partnerships which provided our audience with exclusive opportunities and unique content from their favourite brands.
We were also dedicated to using our platform to support those raising awareness for a wide range of charities and causes. In 2022, more than £200,000 was raised through our online auctions - bringing the all-time total raised for charity via Whisky Auctioneer to over £1 million! Key partners included Brewgooder, Chivas Brothers, William Grant and Sons, Nc'nean and White Peak - all of which held spotlight charity auctions in 2022, supporting a wide range of causes from the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, to environmental and local Scottish charities.
We must also make a special mention to those across the Scotch whisky industry who donated bottles to various appeals such as The Whisky and Rum Investors Ukraine Appeal, The Whisky Ventures Charity Ride and The BEN Charity Auction. Of course, we would also like to thank our global community of whisky lovers who placed their bids so generously in support of these fantastic causes.
Whisky Auctioneer also offered access to impressive private collections, including the collection of renowned Glenfarclas collector, Luc Timmermans, which is available in our live December sale (read our interview with Luc here).
We have also been delighted to sponsor several events in 2022, from The Dramathon (a marathon distance race along the Speyside Way), to the Scottish Whisky Awards in Edinburgh. As a long-standing partner with the Whisky Magazine (remember to visit our monthly digital column by Joe Wilson) we also had a fantastic evening as sponsors of their Icons of Whisky awards in Scotland. The event was made even more special, by having the opportunity to present the PR Agency of the Year award to our very own PR partners, SPEY - congratulations again to team SPEY!
Congratulations to all winners at the Icons of Whisky Scotland hosted by Whisky Magazine.
Our Sister Successes
Our sister brands, Rum Auctioneer and Wine Auctioneer, continued to advance and achieved some incredible milestones of their own.
Rum Auctioneer achieved a new record for the most expensive bottle of rum sold on its platform after this Skeldon SWR 1978 Velier 27 Year Old sold for a Hammer Price of £25,000 in November.
Wine Auctioneer hosted their first exclusive In Bond wine auction in September which featured over 150 lots from unexplored producers to world-famous Grand Cru vineyards.
Skeldon SWR 1978 Velier 27 Year Old [Rum Auctioneer]
Here's to 2023!
So that’s a wrap! Another extraordinary year at Whisky Auctioneer that really could not have been achieved without our exceptional colleagues across all teams and the support of our partners and customers. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this impressive list of achievements throughout another stellar year.
With excitement and anticipation, we’re already looking forward to what 2023 holds for us (we've been working on some exciting developments which we will finally be able to share with you all!). And finally, the entire Whisky Auctioneer team would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best for 2023 - we hope to
