You might have heard that back in August we partnered with our friends over at Whisky Auctioneer to auction off the first 10 bottles of Ainnir, our first ever whisky bottling at the distillery. We donated all the proceeds to five charities who we think do a great job at making the world a better place. Read on for the story of why we did it and how we set a new world record.
WHY DID WE DO IT?
Auctioning special bottlings, first releases and very old bottles is the done thing in the whisky industry. There is a huge market for collectable whiskies. But this isn’t why we did it. We did it because in the time we’re living through, both Covid and the crisis our planet faces, we really wanted to find a good way of giving back.
So, as a team we put our heads together to discuss which charities really meant the most to us, and which charities would most benefit from donations at the time. We threw lots into the mix, but as we weren’t expecting to raise nearly as much as we did, we decided to only pick five.
THE AUCTION
We had decided to partner with Whisky Auctioneer for the big day (well weekend actually), and as soon as they got wind of the fact we were donating all our proceeds, they too kindly offered to donate the equivalent of all their commission and fees from the auction to the same five charities.
The auction kicked off and we soon realised that we would be raising a little more than first anticipated, and as the weekend went on it looked like we might be heading towards a new world record price for the first bottle from a new distillery. The last couple of hours of the auction were (as always) the most exciting - the team spent the final 30 minutes on our Whatsapp group sharing ever growing disbelief at the prices going up and up! At the time of the hammer bottle #1 had reached an incredible £41,004. Four times the previous world record of around £10,000! Just as exciting, were bottles #2 - #10 which together raised more than the first bottle put together. With the addition of the donation from whisky auctioneer, the total auction raised £92,500, an amount that we never could have imagined. We are still in disbelief at the huge success, and are so excited to be able to give over £18,000 to each of our chosen charities.
THE FIVE CHARITIES
We think these five charities are awesome. If you have a minute, take a look at their work and consider getting involved!
Trees For Life
Trees For Life was an easy choice. Their mission to create safe spaces for wildlife and increase biodiversity is so in line with what Nc’nean is all about. And since they have planted nearly 2 million trees to date, we knew our donation would be put to awesome use with their tree planting projects.
The Drinks Trust and The Ben
Coronavirus has had detrimental effects on so many industries, but so many of our close friends in the hospitality industry have been hit hardest by the pandemic, so that’s why we decided to support the UK’s and Scotland’s top hospitality charities. The Drinks Trust and The Ben both do amazing jobs of supporting bar and restaurant workers across the UK and giving back to them at this time just felt like the right thing to do.
Morvern Community Trust
The Morvern peninsula is our home and it's important to us that we support our local community. MCT do a great job of helping with local projects to support everyone in the area and were on our charity list from the very beginning before we even thought about doing the auction.
Scottish Farm Land Trust
We were looking for another environmental based charity that did something a bit different and came across The Scottish Farm Land Trust. The folks there help young people and new farmers take on small-scale ecological agriculture by purchasing land to be held in trust. Supporting small scale sustainable farming felt really close to our brand mission so we knew they would put our money to good use.
A few months ago I saw a report on Arte on your distillery. I looked at my wine merchant for your whiskey but he didn’t have it. So after waiting for him to have it, I finally decided to order it directly from you. But when I told him that, he said he could get it for me. So I trusted him. This week I was lucky to finally have your beautiful case containing your beautiful bottle. Last night when it was cool, I wanted to warm up with a good hot chocolate and I thought it could also be an opportunity to taste your whisky. So with this cup of hot chocolate, I poured myself a little shot of whiskey. And I have to tell you that this assortment is doing great. Your whiskey is really excellent. Congratulation.
Amazing! Congratulations to everyone involved and well done on picking such a great set of charities.
Just came across your website through my support for Trees for Life. Love what your doing. Really inspirational! As a Glasgow boy, I’m so missing Scotland, and can’t wait to get back to visit from my beloved Switzerland. When Covid is corralled I aim to tour the Western Highlands, and Nc’Nean is squarely on my itinerary. Keep up your sustainability mission – it’s never been so essential as today. Cheers!