Royal Scotch whisky to be auctioned

Whisky from the Queen’s private collection is set to be auctioned in the US as part of a fundraising drive for a Minnesota hospital.

The Queen at Buckingham Palace during the reception for the Queen’s Awards 2012 (Photo: DBIS)

Two bottles of 1980 Bowmore Single Malt Whisky from Buckingham Palace will be auctioned off in the town of St Paul on Saturday (26 September) as part of Regions Hospital Foundation’s 26th annual Wine Auction fundraiser.

A minimum reserve bid of $50,000 (£32,200) must be reached for the two bottles to sell. If not, both bottles will be auctioned off on 20 November at Bonham’s in New York.

The bottles come from The Queen’s Cask, which is the barrel of whisky Queen Elizabeth received during a visit to the Bowmore Distillery in Scotland in 1980. Since the whisky was bottled in 2002, three bottles have been donated to charity each year.

“In 2002 for her Golden Jubilee, [the Queen] had been promised a cask from that visit. And in fact, they bottled 648 bottles of this whisky,” said Sarah Bazey, co-chair of the Wine Auction.

Money raised from the auction will help the Regions Hospital Burn Center. In 1994, Bazey spent 50 days at the center after a helicopter crash in which she suffered severe burns to 40% of her body.

The link to the royal whisky comes through Bazey’s old university classmate Simon Berry, chairman of Royal drinks merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd, which has supplied the Royal family since 1760.

“Simon said if [the donation] didn’t need to be wine, in fact, he thought that a bottle of the Queen’s private collection of whisky would be appropriate,” Bazey said.