Port Ellen 4th Annual Release 1978 25 Year Old is a collectable Scotch whisky from Port Ellen aged 25 years. Based on 93 recorded auction lots across 57 months of trading data, the current median hammer price is £1,125, with the most recent sale at £800. Over the trading window, prices have ranged from £660 (low) to £2,100 (high). Accounting for lot-to-lot variation, a realistic valuation range for Port Ellen 4th Annual Release 1978 25 Year Old is £661–£939 (±17% around the latest sale).
Year-on-year, Port Ellen 4th Annual Release 1978 25 Year Old is down 38.5%, with a 6-month trend of -38.5% (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 4th Annual Release 1978 25 Year Old is an age-stated bottling at 25 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 25-year age statement reflects long maturation and the small surviving volume that implies — older stock is scarcer.
Named / limited release
Released as 4thannual, 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.
Latest sale
£800
24-month median
£1,125
24-month high
£2,100
24-month low
£660
Estimated value · likely range
£661–£939 ±17%
Auction hammers swing lot to lot with condition, fill level and timing. Treat this band — not a single figure — as the bottle's value.
| Month | Median | Lots |
|---|---|---|
| December 2025 | £800 | 1 |
| May 2025 | £1,000 | 1 |
| March 2025 | £1,000 | 1 |
| January 2025 | £1,000 | 1 |
| October 2024 | £1,200 | 1 |
| May 2024 | £1,150 | 1 |
| April 2024 | £1,300 | 1 |
| March 2024 | £1,400 | 1 |
| April 2023 | £1,600 | 2 |
| September 2022 | £2,100 | 1 |
| July 2022 | £1,700 | 1 |
| June 2022 | £1,850 | 2 |
More from Port Ellen
The latest hammer price for Port Ellen 4th Annual Release 1978 25 Year Old at auction is £800. Across the most recent 24 months of auction data, the median hammer price is £1,125, with a high of £2,100 and a low of £660. 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 4th Annual Release 1978 25 Year Old is down 38.5% year-on-year based on monthly median hammer prices. Over the past 6 months it has moved down 38.5%. Past auction performance is not a guarantee of future value.
Port Ellen 4th Annual Release 1978 25 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 £1,125 (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 4th Annual Release 1978 25 Year Old has moved down 38.5%, with a current median hammer price of £1,125. The bottle has been observed at auction across 93 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 £800, 24-month median £1,125 — 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 4th Annual Release 1978 25 Year Old that hammers at £800 would cost the buyer approximately £1,008 all-in including buyer's premium.
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