Sotheby’s to auction off rare Macallan Whiskey bottles to benefit diversity, equity initiatives

Jamie Ritchie, Worldwide Head of Sotheby’s Wine, joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers to discuss Sotheby’s auctioning off its rare Macallan Whiskey bottles to benefit diversity, equity, access, and inclusion initiatives.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Now Sotheby's has teamed up with Macallan Whiskey to auction off rare whiskeys from their Anecdotes of Ages Collection. That auction is going to be happening tomorrow. Now the benefits are going to the Guggenheim Museum's diversity, equity, access, and inclusion initiatives. Now each bottle also features a design from Sir Peter Thomas Blake, best known for co-creating the sleeve design for the Beatles album, "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." We're joined now by Jamie Richie, Worldwide Head of Sotheby's Wines. So Jamie, talk to us a little bit about this collaboration. Why did Sotheby's and Macallan team up?

JAMES RITCHIE: So we've had a long and fruitful rewarding partnership with Macallan, where we've been presenting some rare exclusive whiskys that they've launched into the marketplace. And then obviously, giving the proceeds to a variety of different charities around the world. So we've done this in a number of different places, and this is the latest addition, working with the Guggenheim Museum as well.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now I believe that is the box just behind you there, featuring one of the bottles inside. I'm not sure if you can open it up and give us all a sneak peek. There it is. I do want to ask why Sir Thomas, or Sir Peter Thomas Blake, excuse me, to design one of the labels.

JAMES RITCHIE: So the Macallans had a long and rewarding relationship with Sir Peter Blake. And he actually did for the 1926 60-year-old Macallan, he actually did an artist label for that bottle. We were lucky enough to sell one here in New York in October, 2018. And it sold the highest priced bottle of spirits that's been sold, $843.000. They've done another collaboration 2012 with him for his 80th birthday. And this is the latest collaboration with him. So it's a celebration of his pop art, the collages that he's put together.

And the reason they wanted to work with him was, 67 is the liquid in the bottle, which is meaningful for him and his artworks and his creation of the pop art. And then they've created these 13 different labels, which all reflect a different aspect of Macallan, whether it's the people behind it, the landscape, and obviously the liquid. So it goes into the different elements of that. We're selling their New Era of Advertising. This bottle here, which is just up behind me.

And this, yeah, it is, this is one of 13 bottles. It has, signed, the label signed by Peter Blake. It is include the actual collage art on the label, so it is absolutely original. It's one of one. And this bottle celebrates the New Era of Advertising, which really came in and launched Macallan as a brand with a new aesthetic, a new energy, a new diversity. And it includes the people at the bottom of the label just here who have been influential in that story. And then the Easter Elchies house is a watercolor from one of their art directors who was instrumental in building the campaigns.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now you've already hinted at it, at least in terms of the price. They do have quite a large price tag, estimated between $125,000 and $750,000, which is sadly just a little bit out of my price range. So I will not be one of the bidders tomorrow. But how much money are you hoping to raise for the Guggenheim in the auction tomorrow?

JAMES RITCHIE: Well, so yeah, we disclosed the bid online. And the current bidding is at $150,000. As you said, the estimate is a broad one, and the top end is $750,000. And we have a broad estimate because it is absolutely unique. It's one of one. This has never been sold before. It is to go into the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, their diversity, equity, access, and inclusion initiatives, giving you greater access and free entry to a diverse audience.

So for that charitable reason, we have a very broad investment. Obviously, I'm the lucky one who'll be the auctioneer tomorrow morning. And so as an auctioneer, you never want to try and predict where you're going to get to. You're going to coax and encourage people along the way, and we'll see where it ends up. But hopefully, it'll be at least $150,000, and our hopes are obviously a lot higher than that.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right. So we don't want to jinx it ahead of the auction just yet. Now it is incredible to me to see how much these could fetch, even in the midst of a pandemic. How well are spirits and wine selling right now? If my own personal shopping cart has been any indication, I would imagine things have been doing quite well for you in 2020 into 2021.

JAMES RITCHIE: Yes, the market's been very robust. Obviously, people haven't been able to go out and enjoy themselves in restaurants so much and at events and travel, so they've been doing a lot of consumption at home. The spirits market have actually been on fire for us. So in 2016, it had represented 2% of our sales. In 2018, 6%, and last year in 2020, it was 20% of our sales. So the demand for spirits, particularly whisky and particularly Macallan. Macallan is now our number two selling producer in the wine spirits category, and it represents 38% of our whisky sales. So there's strong demand for great whisky, rare whisky.

I would say one of the interesting things, is that younger buyers have really been coming into the marketplace. We have 12% under 30, 48% under 40, and 75% under 50. And we've seen that really around the world, in the Americas, in Europe, and particularly in Asia.

KRISTIN MYERS: I'm wondering if you think that this is a trend that's going to continue even after the pandemic is over. Do you think that something else is going to be catching collectors' fancy going forward?

JAMES RITCHIE: Well, I think everyone wants to celebrate with friends and family once we can move around and travel and commune together. And so I think anything that's consumable, shareable, enjoyable, and adds to an experience is going to be very much valued. So I would expect that both wines and spirits are to continue to have a very strong and healthy demand and growing demand. And we see demand growing from younger people. And that's not that the older people are stopping drinking or enjoying it either. So I think it's a very positive and healthy outlook for our business.

KRISTIN MYERS: And Jamie, how do you see the auction business changing, or do you see it changing because of the pandemic? I know the number of online auctions has been increasing. Do you imagine that that is going to continue even after their pandemic is over?

JAMES RITCHIE: Oh, yes, for sure. I mean, we did a very, very fast digital transformation last year. You know, in March, we suddenly couldn't have a live auction. And we haven't had a live auctions here since that time last year. We actually obviously have this auction tomorrow morning starting at 9:00 AM. And we will, it's live, so people can bid by telephone, they can bid live online and watch the stream of the video through our app or at sothebys.com. And we anticipate that that will continue. We haven't printed many catalogs since then.

We've done digital catalogs. We luckily have a great platform that's very easy to use. And we will continue. We multiplied the number of auctions. We've doubled our number of auctions. They're more frequently, all online, using all the digital tools. The app is fantastic, easy and user friendly. And so we foresee that continuing. And being, and that's a global thing. London, New York and Hong Kong.

KRISTIN MYERS: I do want to quickly ask you, because it'll be a nice tease into our next conversation. Any plans to accept cryptocurrency in some of your auctions?

JAMES RITCHIE: I think, I think there's definitely a movement in that direction, and I think the NFTs, I've already got a couple of emails this morning about NFTs on whiskys. So I think everything in that direction seems to be positive, and I'm sure we'll be moving along that pretty briskly.

KRISTIN MYERS: I can only imagine. All right, Jamie Richie, Worldwide Head of Sotheby's Wine. Thanks so much for joining us today.