Bottle of rare Irish whiskey to be auctioned for more than $40k

Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery will go under the hammer this week at Irish Whiskey Auctions.

Irish whiskey Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery, released less than a month ago, is on sale in stores for a whopping $39,000 but will be auctioned online at Irish Whiskey Auctions this week.

Only 48 bottles off the whiskey were produced, making it one of the most sought-after whiskeys in Ireland.

The bottle is a collector's dream and will go under the hammer on Friday, March 13 on Irish Whiskey Auctions, an online whiskey auction site that hosts monthly auctions.

The bottle of Midleton Rare Silent Distillery is set to be the most expensive bottle ever purchased on the site since it launched in late 2018.

The bottle comes from the famous Old Midleton Distillery, which operated from 1825-1875.

A silent distillery is a distillery that no longer distills any whiskey but only leaves whiskey maturing in cellars. The lucrative bottle of Midleton Rare Silent Distillery is the first bottle to be released from a six-bottle series.

Midleton will be releasing a bottle from the old distillery every year until 2025 to coincide with its 200th birthday.

Anthony Sheehy, the owner and founder of Irish Whiskey Auctions, said: "In the past 18 months, there’s been €1.6m in cumulative bids on our site and we have auctioned over 5000 bottles of whiskey, but this is the most exclusive and valuable bottle that we’ve auctioned to date.

“It’s difficult to predict its final value but we’ve already received interest in bids surpassing €40,000 ($44,000)."

He added: “Irish whiskey has been enjoying a huge renaissance and there’s international demand for our finest and rarest whiskeys."

Irish Whiskey Auctions is open to buyers and sellers and more than 700 bottles of whiskey, from collector's items to store-bought whiskey, went on sale during its January auction.

A massive deal for us here in Dundalk based @whiskeyauction , we have the most expensive bottle of Irish Whiskey coming up in our next Auction starting Friday at 5pm#louthchat #louth #irishwhiskey pic.twitter.com/mUnBopEMYZ
— Irishwhiskeyauctions (@whiskeyauction) March 10, 2020