On this page
First Fill or Refill? What Auction Prices Show
At auction, first-fill sherry cask whisky sells for 1.3 times refill of the same age. First-fill bourbon earns no premium, and cask size adds little.
The words on a cask-strength label are mostly about the wood: first fill, refill, butt, hogshead, barrel. Independent bottlers often print them on single casks, and distilleries use “first fill” as a selling point. This guide asks a narrower question than whether they change the flavour: does a bottle with one of those words sell for more at auction?
The figures come from sold lots at Scotch Whisky Auctions, the only one of the three auction houses we follow that records the cask for each lot. Lots run from 2011 to 2026. Hammer prices exclude buyer’s commission, VAT and delivery. A lot counts as first fill when its cask description says “1st fill” or “first fill”, and as refill when it says “refill” or “second fill”; a description that says both, or neither, is left out. For what the terms mean in the warehouse, see whisky maturation and age statements.
First fill against refill, sherry casks
On smaller screens, scroll sideways to see every column.
| First fill | Refill | |
|---|---|---|
| Lots sold | 17,321 | 12,022 |
| Median hammer, all ages | £130 | £130 |
| Median age | 13 years | 16 years |
| From an independent bottler | 32% | 62% |
Across all ages the two medians are the same, but that hides an age gap: first-fill sherry lots are three years younger, and older whisky sells for more. Compare bottles of the same age and the first-fill median is 1.30 times the refill median, weighting each age by the number of lots. Leave out Macallan and it is 1.20 times. Compare the same distillery at the same age, which takes out the most famous names, and it is 1.50 times, on a smaller set of matched lots.
On smaller screens, scroll sideways to see every column.
| Age | First fill median | Refill median |
|---|---|---|
| 8 to 9 years | £65 | £90 |
| 10 to 12 years | £115 | £90 |
| 13 to 14 years | £85 | £100 |
| 15 to 18 years | £150 | £115 |
| 19 to 20 years | £170 | £140 |
| 21 to 25 years | £280 | £180 |
| 26 to 30 years | £340 | £290 |
| 31 to 40 years | £480 | £460 |
The premium is not there at every age. At 8 to 9 and 13 to 14 years refill lots sold for more, probably because of which distilleries and bottlers fill those age bands. The gap is widest from 15 to 25 years.
First fill against refill, bourbon casks
On smaller screens, scroll sideways to see every column.
| First fill | Refill | |
|---|---|---|
| Lots sold | 12,723 | 12,937 |
| Median hammer, all ages | £80 | £120 |
| Median age | 12 years | 18 years |
| From an independent bottler | 40% | 74% |
Here the overall medians point the other way: refill bourbon lots sold for half as much again. Again it is age. Refill bourbon lots are six years older on the median, and nearly three quarters come from independent bottlers, who bottle more old single casks. Compare bottles of the same age and first fill sells for 0.97 times refill; at the same distillery and age, 0.94 times. A first-fill bourbon cask on the label earns no premium at auction.
On smaller screens, scroll sideways to see every column.
| Age | First fill median | Refill median |
|---|---|---|
| 8 to 9 years | £60 | £65 |
| 10 to 12 years | £60 | £65 |
| 13 to 14 years | £70 | £75 |
| 15 to 18 years | £100 | £100 |
| 19 to 20 years | £95 | £155 |
| 21 to 25 years | £140 | £160 |
| 26 to 30 years | £370 | £250 |
Butt, hogshead or barrel
A bigger cask holds more whisky against less wood, so it is often said to mature more slowly. At auction, the size of the cask mostly tracks what it held:
On smaller screens, scroll sideways to see every column.
| Cask size | Lots sold | Median hammer | Mostly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puncheon | 7,937 | £150 | Sherry (76%) |
| Butt | 37,966 | £150 | Sherry (89%) |
| Hogshead | 48,049 | £110 | Mixed: refill (32%), sherry (29%), bourbon (27%) |
| Barrel | 34,316 | £90 | Bourbon (71%) |
| Quarter cask | 2,043 | £65 | Bourbon (42%) |
| Octave | 895 | £80 | Sherry (54%) |
So butts sell for more than barrels largely because butts are sherry casks, which already sell for about one and a half times bourbon casks of the same age (the sherry cask premium). To see the size on its own, compare within one kind of cask:
- Sherry: butt against hogshead. At the same age a sherry butt lot sold for 1.05 times a sherry hogshead lot, and a puncheon for 1.14 times. At the same distillery and age, both were 0.97 times: no premium for the bigger cask.
- Bourbon: barrel against hogshead. At the same age a bourbon barrel lot sold for 1.24 times a bourbon hogshead lot, and 1.20 times at the same distillery and age. This is the one size difference that survives the comparison. The data cannot say why; a barrel is smaller than a hogshead, but many hogsheads are rebuilt from barrels, so the label word may stand for other differences in how the cask was used.
What it means if you are buying
On sherry casks, “first fill” is worth something at auction: about 1.2 to 1.5 times a refill bottle of the same age, depending on how closely you match the bottles. On bourbon casks it is worth nothing on its own, and the size of a sherry cask adds nothing once you compare the same distillery. If two bottles differ only in those words, the price gap should be small; a big gap is usually age, distillery or bottler.
Commission, VAT and delivery go on top of every hammer price; buying whisky at auction vs retail works through the sums. Each cask page also shows what its bottles sold for at auction: sherry cask, bourbon cask, oloroso and Pedro Ximénez.