We are excited to announce Bonhams’ whisky auctions as the next new addition to Whiskystats. The auction results from Bonhams reveal further critical insights into the higher end of the global secondary whisky market.

With the addition of Bonhams to the list of tracked auction houses, the Whiskystats database now covers an estimated 75% of the global whisky auction market, thereby providing much-needed market transparency. However, among the eight auction houses currently tracked, Bonhams is the smallest in terms of trading volume and value in 2023. But as with Sotheby’s, the type of whiskies traded at Bonhams are exceptional and often rarely traded or even seen elsewhere.

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In 2023, the median buyer price per whisky bottle at Bonhams is €890. This is only exceeded by Sotheby’s with €1,750. All other auction houses fall between €120 to €190 per bottle. Some rare whiskies, like the Macallan 1982 Gran Reserva and the Port Ellen 1976 Barrel Selection, were only available at Bonhams this year. Bonhams and Sotheby’s thus clearly focus on the top-end of the luxury whisky market.

As with Sotheby’s, Macallan is the most traded whisky brand at Bonhams, with a share of 17% of all bottles traded. Japanese Yamazaki, Karuizawa, and Hibiki are also among the top ten brands. But while at Sotheby’s, the remainder of the list consisted of primarily premium American whiskies, at Bonhams, only Willet appears, with the other top positions occupied by premium Scotch brands. Springbank is the fourth most traded brand at Bonhams, with Port Ellen, Glen Grant, Bowmore and Dalmore rounding out the top ten.

Diminishing Price Gap

As with every auction house, Bonhams caters to its own unique audience of whisky buyers and sellers worldwide. The lack of transparency in the whisky market has long resulted in substantial price differences for the same whiskies. But this has changed over the past couple of years. To measure and investigate this price gap, we compared each historic Bonhams trade to the prices at other auction houses within 90 days before the respective Bonhams trade.

In 2018, the buyer prices for those Bonhams lots, for which there was a direct comparison, were 56% above their counterparts from other auction houses. The primary driver of this gap was the Bonhams’ Hong Kong auctions, where buyer prices exceeded global market prices by more than 70%. The gap at Bonhams UK auctions was far less at 17%. In 2019 and 2020, the overall price gap fell below 20%. After a short spike in 2021, again due to Hong Kong prices, the overall price gap has now receded to roughly 7%. Prices in Hong Kong, however, continue to exceed the global market, but the difference in 2023 shrank to 12%.

The next Bonhams auction starts on November 27 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Whiskystats members can customize their Auction Notifications to include or exclude certain auctions or locations. Elite members can access all price details of the historical results, providing insights into the price gaps between not only different auction sites but also lot locations.

Disclaimer: The whisky market insights presented in this article are based on the Whiskystats database at the time of publication. Whiskystats is constantly adding new data; therefore, some charts and figures may not match after initial publication.