Macallan 1926: Rare whisky becomes world’s most expensive as bottle goes for record $2.7mn at auction

London, United Kingdom

A bottle of The Macallan 1926 set the record for the world’s most expensive bottle of whisky after being sold at an auction in London for $2.7 million. The single malt whisky went under the hammer for a record-setting amount at a Sotheby’s auction, on Saturday (Nov 18) and is said to be one of the world’s most sought-after bottles of Scotch whisky. 

‘New record’ for ‘oldest vintage’

The rare bottle had been expected to raise $934,275 and $1.49 million but surpassed estimates to fetch a whopping $2.7 million, more than double its estimated price. The sale set a “new record for any bottle of spirit or wine sold at auction,” Sotheby’s told news agency AFP.

The Adami 1926 is the oldest Macallan vintage ever produced. It is also worth noting that this is not the first time that a Macallan 1926 bottle has fetched a record-breaking amount at an auction. 

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In 2019, one of the Macallan 1926 bottles went under the hammer for a whopping $1.86 million and set the previous record for the most expensive bottle ever sold. 

What makes this whisky so special?

Sotheby’s head of whisky, Jonny Fowle, told AFP that he had been allowed to sample the valuable dram before the sale.

Fowle said: “I tasted a tiny drop – a tiny drop – of this. It’s very rich, it’s got a lot of dried fruit as you would expect, a lot of spice, a lot of wood.”

He added it had spent 60 years in dark European oak, which was reflected in the colour. “It’s not a whisky to take lightly. It’s a rich, rich dram, but it is incredible,” Fowle said.

The whisky is said to have spent around six decades maturing in dark oak sherry casks before becoming one of just 40 bottled in 1986. However, not all were for sale as some were offered to The Macallan’s top clients. 

The Macallan distillery is based in Moray, northern Scotland. 

“The Macallan 1926 is the one whisky that every auctioneer wants to sell and every collector wants to own,” Fowle had said ahead of the auction last month. 

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According to Sotheby’s, the labels for the 40 bottles from the 1926 cask are different. Two bottles did not have labels, while around 14 were decorated with the iconic Fine and Rare labels and a dozen were labelled by pop artist Sir Peter Blake.

So far, the record has been broken three times between 2018 and 2019 by three of the different variations – Sir Peter Blake, Michael Dillon, and Fine and Rare. 

This time around, it is one of the 12 Macallan 1926 bottles that in 1993 had their labels designed by the Italian painter Valerio Adami. 

It is also believed that out of all these bottles, only one has been opened and consumed while one is said to be destroyed during the Japanese earthquake of 2011 and another is unaccounted for. 

(With inputs from agencies)