By Hannah Boland
A rare bottle of Scotch dubbed the “holy grail” for whisky drinkers is poised to fetch up to £1.2 million ($2.3 million) when it goes to auction next month.
Sotheby’s will be putting the 96-year-old bottle of Macallan single malt whisky under the hammer in London on November 18, with advance bidding due to begin at the start of the month.
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s global head of spirits, unveils a bottle of The Macallan 1926, the world’s most expensive whisky.Credit: Getty
The Macallan Adami 1926 is expected to sell for at least £750,000, but Sotheby’s has set a guide price of up to £1.2 million for the item.
If it reaches this level, it would make the bottle one of the most expensive ever sold.
The record for the most ever spent on a wine or spirit is another bottle of The Macallan 1926, which sold for £1.5 million in 2019.
Before that, the record had been held by a third bottle from the same cask, which sold for £1.2 million in 2018.
‘The Macallan 1926 is the one whisky that every auctioneer wants to sell, and every collector wants to own.’
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s global head of spirits
The Macallan 1926 has been called the “holy grail” and “the most sought-after Scotch whisky”.
The Speyside distillery only ever produced 40 bottles of the whisky, which was aged for six decades and bottled in 1986. Bottles were then offered to Macallan’s top clients.
The bottle up for sale next month is the first to have gone through a reconditioning process, changing the cork and applying glue to the corner of the bottle’s label. Its label was designed by Italian painter Valerio Adami.
Sir Peter Blake, who co-created the sleeve design for the Beatles’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, also designed some of the labels used on the bottles. One of the labels was hand-painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon.
Macallan has said these designs partly explain why the price is so high, although the distiller insists that “the 60-year-old liquid inside is exceptional and rare on its own”.
According to Sotheby’s, one of the bottles featuring a label by Adami was destroyed during an earthquake in Japan in 2011.
Only one bottle is known to have been opened and drunk, with pictures taken of the event in Japan.
It means information on the taste of the whisky is scarce. However, the Macallan says the whisky is woody and resiny, “sweetened with medium treacle toffee and rich dried fruits”.
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s global head of spirits, said: “The Macallan 1926 is the one whisky that every auctioneer wants to sell, and every collector wants to own.”
The Telegraph, London
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.