Every two years, the Scotch whisky industry comes together for an extraordinary occasion which Jonny Fowle, global head of spirits at Sotheby’s, describes as ‘the apex at which whisky meets art and luxury’. And, it should be added, philanthropy. Because this is the Distiller’s One of One, the biennial whisky auction which has raised £4.3 million for charity over two previous editions. The third auction takes place on 10 October 2025 at Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh.

The (by definition) unique lots are impressive, whether because of the liquid itself (the oldest whisky is The Glen Grant Eternal 77-Year-Old, drawn from a single sherry butt filled in 1948);  or because the lot includes a unique experience (for example, The Last Drop hosting a private blending masterclass with ex-Chivas blender Colin Scott at Scone Palace) or an added reason for collectability (such as House of Hazelwood inviting the winning bidder to have both a bespoke whisky and a Huntsman of Savile Row jacket created). In some cases, the lot cost the donors tens of thousands of pounds to create.

Port Ellen whisky distillery

As Fowle hinted at, the added value is often that the “packaging” is a work of art, or at least craft. The Port Ellen lot, potentially representing the high-water mark, is estimated at between £150,000 and £300,000. It is a 1.5-litre decanter of a 1978 single malt, encased in a sculpture created by “glass painter” Wilfried Grootens. Multiple individual sheets of painted glass form a floating representation of the smoke at the core of Port Ellen whisky. The 46-year-old whisky within (from the period before the distillery closed down in 1983, before being rebuilt four decades later) is the longest aged Port Ellen ever released.

Meanwhile, Dhavall Gandhi, former whisky maker at The Macallan and The Lakes distilleries has donated a piece from his “whisky maison” Kandoblanc. Gandhi takes the One of One approach – completely individual bottles of rare Scotch, often designed from scratch for a customer – to all of Kandoblanc’s output, so this is less of a departure for him. He calls upon the services of masters of almost lost arts and crafts around the world to create a unique vessel. For the Distillers One of One auction, Dragon in Clouds is made from battuto glass from the Venini studio in Murano, topped by Japanese urushi lacquerware.

A bottle of The Last Drop

Although the Worshipful Company of Distillers is a City of London livery company, most of its members are Scottish distilleries. While its regular charitable activities benefit causes in London, One of One is specifically aimed at helping young people in Scotland.

As much care and attention goes into the charitable side as the lots themselves, explains the managing director of Distillers One of One, Beanie Geraedts-Espey: ‘We’ve set up a grant-making fund and identified five charities who work in a complementary fashion. Each individual brought into the programme is assigned a caseworker. It’s that one-to-one attention that brings about the transformational change for young people who, in many instances, go from having no qualifications and can’t talk to strangers to gainful employment or returning to education.’

So, it’s one-to-one philanthropy from the One of One auction.

The Distillers One of One 2025 begins at 2PM BST on Friday 10 October. To register to bid, or to livestream the auction, go to sothebys.com; distillersoneofone.com