Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old is a collectable Scotch whisky from Port Ellen aged 37 years. Based on 62 recorded auction lots across 28 months of trading data, the current median hammer price is £2,100, with the most recent sale at £1,850. Over the trading window, prices have ranged from £1,650 (low) to £2,600 (high). Accounting for lot-to-lot variation, a realistic valuation range for Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old is £1,702–£1,998 (±8% around the latest sale).
Year-on-year, Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old is down 19.6%, with a 6-month trend of -28.8% (down). wsky1 aggregates hammer prices from major public Scotch whisky auctions including Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, and Bonhams. All prices are in GBP and exclude buyer's premium (typically 24–28% additional at major houses). Past auction performance is not a guarantee of future value.
Port Ellen is a whisky distillery. Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old is an age-stated bottling at 37 years old, distilled in 1978.
Closed / ghost distillery
Port Ellen closed in 1983; bottlings from its original era are finite and command a scarcity premium at auction.
Single vintage
Distilled in a single year (1978), so the available batch is inherently finite.
Considerable age
A 37-year age statement reflects long maturation and the small surviving volume that implies — older stock is scarcer.
Named / limited release
Released as 16thannual, a named edition rather than part of the standard core range.
These are scarcity and demand signals drawn from the bottle's own attributes — they describe the bottle, not a prediction of future price. Not investment advice.
Filter by source
Latest sale
£1,850
24-month median
£2,100
24-month high
£2,600
24-month low
£1,650
Estimated value · likely range
£1,702–£1,998 ±8%
Auction hammers swing lot to lot with condition, fill level and timing. Treat this band — not a single figure — as the bottle's value.
Seen at: Scotch Whisky Auctions · Bonhams
Cross-house median
£2,150
Median hammer price blended across every recorded sale at all 2 auction houses below — a single figure that smooths house-to-house variation.
| Auction house | Price points | Latest hammer | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotch Whisky Auctions | 51 | £2,000 | £2,200 |
| Bonhams | 1 | £1,700 | £1,700 |
| Month | Median | Lots |
|---|---|---|
| June 2026 | £1,850 | 2 |
| December 2025 | £1,900 | 2 |
| July 2024 | £2,200 | 2 |
| November 2023 | £2,200 | 2 |
| August 2023 | £2,100 | 2 |
| April 2023 | £2,200 | 2 |
| January 2023 | £2,600 | 2 |
| January 2022 | £2,600 | 2 |
| December 2021 | £2,600 | 2 |
| July 2021 | £2,100 | 2 |
| May 2021 | £2,300 | 2 |
| February 2021 | £2,200 | 2 |
More from Port Ellen
The latest hammer price for Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old at auction is £1,850. Across the most recent 24 months of auction data, the median hammer price is £2,100, with a high of £2,600 and a low of £1,650. All prices are in GBP and exclude buyer's premium. Data is aggregated from major auction houses including Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, and Bonhams.
Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old is down 19.6% year-on-year based on monthly median hammer prices. Over the past 6 months it has moved down 28.8%. Past auction performance is not a guarantee of future value.
Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old regularly appears at major Scotch whisky auction houses including Scotch Whisky Auctions (Scotland), Whisky Auctioneer (Scotland), Just Whisky, Whisky Hammer, and Bonhams. The current median hammer price is £2,100 (excluding buyer's premium). At most major houses, buyer's premium adds 24–28% on top of hammer for the buyer; sellers typically receive the hammer price minus a sales commission of 5–15%.
Over the past 12 months Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old has moved down 19.6%, with a current median hammer price of £2,100. The bottle has been observed at auction across 62 recorded lots in our database. wsky1 provides hammer-price data for informational purposes only — not investment advice. Whisky is an illiquid alternative asset; secondary-market value depends heavily on bottle condition, fill level, label integrity, and timing.
wsky1 ingests public auction results from major auction houses (via direct scraping of Scotch Whisky Auctions, Whisky Auctioneer, Bonhams, and Whisky Hammer, plus aggregated data from WhiskyHunter). For each bottle, we group hammer prices by year-month and compute the median price per month. The figures shown — latest £1,850, 24-month median £2,100 — are derived from this monthly-median methodology. All prices are hammer prices in GBP, excluding buyer's premium.
No. All prices on wsky1 are hammer prices only. Buyer's premium at major Scotch whisky auction houses currently runs at 24–28% on top of the hammer price. A bottle of Port Ellen 16th Annual Release 1978 37 Year Old that hammers at £1,850 would cost the buyer approximately £2,331 all-in including buyer's premium.
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