Why the Yamazaki 55 Year Whisky Resells for Half a Million

Hint, it's not (just) because it gets you drunk

News

By RC Staff

14 May 2023

Key Points

The Yamazaki 55 Year is an exclusive blend of Yamazaki’s oldest malts
A limited supply of bottles were produced, with 100 allocated to Japan and 100 to the rest of the world
Priced at around $27,000 initially, bottles of the Yamazaki 55 Year have auctioned for hundreds of thousands

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Food & Beverages

The Yamazaki 55 Year Single Malt Whisky

200 bottles of this legendary whisky were released in 2020 and 2021, and it broke numerous price records in the years that followed.

Like whisky? Willing to fork over half a mil for a bottle? You might be surprised by what collectors are willing to pay for rare alcohol. The Yamazaki 55 Year was a special blend of malts produced by the Yamazaki distillery in 2020. Just 200 bottles of the blend were produced, with the initial release limited to Japan only. After several record-breaking auctions, a wider global release followed. In the years since the Yamazaki 55 Year’s release, it’s gained a status in collector’s circles as an extremely rare and valuable whisky.

What is the Yamazaki 55 Year whisky?

The Yamazaki distillery in Osaka is Japan’s oldest commercial whisky distillery. Much of the Suntory company’s whisky was first produced here, so it has a long history in Japanese whisky culture. Additionally, the Yamazaki distillery also stores the oldest malts in Suntory’s stores, which are periodically blended and bottled as special offerings.

One of these is the Yamazaki 55 Year Whisky. Billed by Suntory as “a tribute to the passage of time”, the Yamazaki 55 Year is a blend of several malts from 1960 and 1964. Aged in white oak casks for the last 50 years and change, it’s safe to say this particular whisky has picked up some distinct flavors.

Of course, most people won’t have the opportunity to taste this particular blend. When it was first unveiled, only 100 bottles were up for sale exclusively in Japan. The price? 3 million yen, or around $27,000 at the time.

These initial bottles were available through a lottery, with winners selected from private buyers and whisky stores.

The Yamazaki 55 Year whisky on the aftermarket

Following the lottery and 100 lucky winners receiving their bottles, several Yamazaki 55 Year whiskey bottles were put up for auction. While the final sale prices varied, they tended to gavel for seriously high prices. As in, closing in on a million dollars high.

The highest auction price reached for a bottle of the Yamazaki 55 Year was $6.2 million Hong Kong dollars in August 2020, around $800,000 USD at the time. Appraisers estimated the value of the bottle at around $60,000 USD prior to the sale.

Following this sale and several others, Suntory announced a global release of the Yamazaki 55 Year in 2021. 100 more bottles would be sold to the rest of the world, this time for $60,000 per bottle.

With the increase of bottles in circulation, aftermarket prices for the Yamazaki 55 Year came down. A bit. Average auction prices now tend to hover around $600,000 USD. As you can see, now’s the perfect time to hop in on one of these bottles if you have a few hundred grand to spare.

But what does the Yamazaki 55 Year taste like? One has to imagine that most bottles are bought by collectors to occupy space on a shelf, so has anyone cracked one open for a special occasion yet? One review describes it as primarily sweet, with a layer of bitterness under it. It’s probably hard to distill an experience like drinking the Yamazaki 55 Year into mere words. Fortunately, that shouldn’t be a concern for most of us.