Birthday gift of single malts pays for deposit on house

A MAN whose father gifted him an 18-year-old bottle of whisky for his birthday each year is set to buy a house with the proceeds of the collection.

When Matthew Robinson was born in 1992, his father Peter bought a Macallan single malt for him and carried on the tradition for the next 18 years.

Mr Robinson spent £5,000 on the scotches, which are now collectively worth more than £40,000. Matthew intends to use the money from the sale as a deposit for a house.

Mark Littler, a whisky broker who is arranging the sale of the collection, said it was the “perfect set”.

“The value of Macallan has risen massively over the last five to 10 years. To have such a vast collection of bottles is the real selling point of these,” he added. Mr Littler reported “a lot of interest” in the collection, especially from buyers in the US and Asia.

Matthew, who is now 28 years old, said the whisky “probably wasn’t” the best gift for a child but he was put under “strict instructions from his father never to open them”.

“Each year I received it as a birthday present,” Matthew said. “I thought it was quite a quirky little present as I was slightly too young to start drinking. But I was under strict instructions, never, never to open them and I tried my hardest and succeeded and they’re all intact.”

The first bottle, a 1974 Macallan, was bought to “wet the baby’s head”, Mr Robinson said. “I thought it would be interesting if I bought one every year and he’d end up with 18 bottles of 18-year-old whisky for his 18th birthday.” He added: “It wasn’t the only present he got from us. It was just meant to be a unique present but it was a little bit of luck that we kept it going.”

While Mr Robinson planned to end the tradition on his son’s 18th birthday, but he carried on buying the bottles of Macallan and has now bought 28 in total.

Matthew said it was a “massive weight” off his shoulders to have the money from the sale to put towards a house.

A Macallan scotch aged for 18 years and bottled in 1974 is advertised on the whiskyvault.com website for £3,750.