About Us

The Soul Behind the Liquid Gold

Exclusive Whisky Auctions was not established by a faceless corporate venture group, a speculative technology start-up, or an automated algorithm. It was forged in the fire of authentic passion, born from a lifelong dedication to liquid history, and sculpted by over two decades of hands-on experience in the global secondary spirits market. To understand the foundation, structural parameters, and unyielding principles of this elite platform, one must understand the journey of its founder and Auction Master, Pierre Sauren.
Pierre’s relationship with rare spirits began back in 2005. What started as an individual fascination with the heritage, craftsmanship, and intricate distillation profiles of single malt Scotch and rare distillates quickly transformed into a rigorous, lifelong pursuit of commercial excellence. Over the course of more than twenty years, Pierre transitioned from an enthusiastic, meticulous private collector into a highly authoritative, globally recognized international whisky expert. His entire career has been dedicated to evaluating everything of true value, judging premium quality, verifying historical provenance, and establishing an unblemished reputation for absolute business honesty, flawless transparency, and profound professional respect for fellow collectors, traders, and corporate partners across the globe.
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languages and available in 60+ markets
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objects submitted every day
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markets
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of the objects auctioned are sold within ten days
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unique monthly visitors
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employees
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languages and available in 60+ markets
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The Visionary Force: Meet Auction Master Pierre Sauren

In the high-stakes, premium whisky industry, asset valuation is frequently obscured by speculative market bubbles, inconsistent grading standards, and unverified data hooks. Pierre Sauren built his professional legacy by enforcing a strictly analytical, empirical approach. He strongly believes that evaluating a rare bottle is not a matter of guesswork or internet hype—it is a meticulous data science. 

As the platform’s active Auction Master, Pierre personally anchors and oversees the valuation architecture of every lot before it goes live. He pinpoints the precise, authentic market value and investment-grade quality of rare bottles by cross-referencing 20 years of continuous historical secondary-market transaction data, global scarcity matrices, structural macroeconomic supply-and-demand indicators, and direct physical quality markers—including precise fill levels (ullage), label preservation, capsule integrity, and box conditions. When you interact with a lot on our platform, you are accessing an asset valuation backed by two decades of deep analytical intelligence and absolute marketplace integrity.  

The Three Core Values: Honesty, Fairness, and Mutual Respect

A primary motivation for launching Exclusive Whisky Auctions was to establish an unshakeable, legally bulletproof benchmark for market integrity. Throughout his entire career, Pierre has operated on three foundational principles that guide every programmatic rule, administrative feature, and legal term implemented on this platform:

Absolute Honesty

We maintain a strictly transparent marketplace where hidden fees, artificial price manipulation, and misleading condition records are completely non-existent.

Transparent Fairness

Every user, whether liquidating a single private bottle or acquiring a high-value corporate portfolio asset, operates on a perfectly level playing field with full visual clarity.

Deep Professional Respect

We treat our private users and licensed corporate enterprises with the highest business courtesy. We respect your time, protect your investments, and engineer world-class digital tools to make your trading environment clean, automated, and secure.

Advanced Fiscal Architecture for Commercial Business Sellers

A core engineering requirement for Pierre Sauren was to construct a digital venue capable of supporting the high-volume operational demands, strict compliance metrics, and accounting lines of licensed commercial business sellers, corporate brokers, and institutional liquor merchants. Navigating the administrative friction of cross-border European tax regulations, intra-Community supply definitions, and One-Stop Shop (OSS) filing obligations can be an immense logistical challenge for corporate accounting departments.

To resolve this complex friction, our checkout system features fully automated international VAT flowcharts natively integrated into our financial core. The platform dynamically analyzes the geographic location, legal tax profile, and corporate credentials of both transacting parties to instantly execute one of 6 distinct cross-border fiscal frameworks:

Scenario 1 (Private EU Transaction)

A private German seller lists a bottle won by a private French buyer. The bottle traveling between individuals is VAT-free under the margin scheme. French destination VAT (20%) is automatically calculated and isolated by the platform exclusively on the digital buyer services (the 6% commission and €2.00 buyer protection) and remitted cleanly via our Dutch OSS portal. The seller’s fees are charged with German consumer VAT (19%) and remitted via OSS, leaving the private seller with an automated, hassle-free net payout of €125.24 on a €100.00 hammer price + €30.00 shipping baseline.

Scenario 2 (Private EU to International Non-EU Transaction)

A private German seller sells to a private individual in Hong Kong. Because the delivery moves outside the EU borders, the entire buyer invoice qualifies as a direct export and is 100% exempt from European VAT (0% VAT) across all line items (hammer price, shipping, premium, protection). The seller’s platform fees remain subject to standard German consumer VAT (19%), maintaining flawless compliance with EU cross-border service laws.

Scenario 3 (Commercial EU Seller & Private EU Buyer)

A German company sells to a private French consumer. This is where our fiscal system shines: the buyer’s invoice correctly reflects 20% French destination VAT across all rows (hammer price, shipping, premium, protection) because the asset originates from a business. The platform collects the total gross revenue, applies the automated B2B reverse-charge mechanism (0% VAT) to the seller’s fees because they hold a valid EU VAT number, and pays out a gross revenue of €152.00 to the German business. The German commercial seller simply takes the isolated €26.00 VAT on the bottle and shipping and remits it via their own national OSS portal, completely protected and guided by our data logs.

Scenario 4 (Commercial EU Seller & International Non-EU Buyer)

A German business sells to a private individual in Hong Kong. Because the single malt asset physically leaves the European Union customs zone, the transaction represents a textbook export supply. 0% European VAT is calculated on the hammer price, shipping, and buyer fees. The platform applies a 0% B2B reverse charge to the seller’s fees, transferring a pure net payout directly to the commercial seller’s account without any subsequent VAT liabilities.

Scenario 5 (Transaction Entirely Outside EU Borders - Worldwide to Worldwide)

An American seller lists a bottle purchased by a Japanese connoisseur. Because the entire transaction, the physical asset, and the fulfillment trail occur entirely outside the territorial jurisdiction of the European Union, the platform automatically determines that European tax legislation is completely non-applicable. All lines display 0% European VAT, allowing international enterprises to trade globally with zero European regulatory drag.

Scenario 6 (Commercial EU Seller & Commercial EU Buyer - B2B to B2B):

German company sells to a French corporate entity. This creates a completely professional, cross-border commercial chain. The supply of the bottle itself is structured as an intra-Community supply (0% VAT), and all digital platform service fees on both the buyer and seller sides are instantly cleared at 0% VAT via the B2B reverse-charge mechanism (0% VAT). All parties receive clean corporate invoices and account for the VAT locally in their regular national tax returns.

Uncompromised Protection, Escrow, and Elite Logistics

We believe that advanced technology should elevate user speed while introducing ultimate security. Exclusive Whisky Auctions features a streamlined live bidding system protected by state-of-the-art compliance layers:

Biometric Identification (18+ Check)

To enforce strict statutory compliance across international alcohol trading laws, all users must complete a secure, certified biometric identity and age-verification scan via the specialized software Veriff during account creation. Accounts that fail to pass this verification are strictly barred from auction privileges.

Third-Party Escrow Asset Protection

Every single buyer payment is securely held within a licensed, independent third-party escrow account managed by our accredited payment processors. Capital is protected from fraud and is exclusively released to the seller only after transit data confirms successful delivery and a strict 3-calendar-day quality inspection window expires without a dispute.

High-Performance Global Logistics

While physical fulfillment is executed directly by the seller, our platform tightly manages the international logistical parameters. We mandate that all exclusive spirits and vintage collectibles travel with the most reputable international carriers, fully insured, discreetly documented, and enclosed in professional, shockproof, and specialized glass-transport packaging.

Categories

Whisky

Rum

Champagne

Cognac

Port

Wine