Whether you’re drowning your sorrows or toasting the inauguration – a glass of Trump Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky could be the perfect spirit. A bottle signed by Donald Trump – before he became US president – has sold for £6,000 (€7k) at auction in Glasgow.
Bottled in 2012 to commemorate the opening of the Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire, the limited edition 26-year-old GlenDronach single malt whisky went under the hammer earlier this month at McTear's Fine Art Auctioneers sale of Rare and Collectable Whisky in Glasgow on January 13th.
The bottle had a pre-sale estimate of £2,500-£3,500 (€2.9k-€4.1k) but it sold after what the auctioneers said was “intense online, phone and in-room bidding” to an unnamed Canadian buyer for a hammer price of £6,000. They described the GlenDronach as “a stunning whisky in its own right” but that “the Trump connection gave this particular bottle a presidential boost”.
Graeme Maxwell, a whisky specialist with the auction house told The Irish Times the whisky had been distilled in 1985 and was matured in a sherry cask from which 504 Trump bottles were produced. He said it is not known precisely how many bottles Mr Trump had signed but he expects others may now be consigned following publicity about the high price achieved. But even the unsigned bottles are rising in value. An unsigned bottle of the Trump Scotch will feature in McTear's next whisky auction on February 24th with an estimate of £500-£600 (€586k-€704k). It is believed that the bottles originally retailed at £195 (€229).
According to the company website, the Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, located at Balmedi, Aberdeenshire, is "one of the best links golf courses in the world". Earlier this week, the BBC reported that Mr Trump had resigned as a director of Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd on January 19th, the eve of his inauguration as US president.
Mr Trump's mother was Scottish. Mary Anne Macleod, who born near Stornoway in the Western Isles, emigrated to the United States as a teenager and married Fred Trump in 1936.
