No. 1 The Macallan 1926 60 Year Old – sold for US$1.9 million
This is another bottle from the now famous The Macallan Cask #263, the same cask that produced the record-breaking Valerio Adami bottle – though that record itself would be smashed again by another bottle from the same cask sold by Sotheby’s.
The 60-year-old Macallan from cask #263 was the headline sale of Sotheby’s Ultimate Whisky Collection auction in London in October 2019. Distilled in 1926, the cask yielded just 40 bottles. Twenty four bottles were specially designed by two pop artists Valerio Adami and Peter Baker, with 12 bottles each. Two bottles from the cask were believed to be sold for private labeling, one of which was hand painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon. The bottle would later be sold by Christie’s in London for £1.2 million (US$1.5 million) in November 2018.
The 1926 60 Year Old bearing The Macallan’s ‘Fine and Rare’ label is one of the 14 bottles left from Cask #263. It eventually fetched £1.5 million (US$1.9 million) which almost tripled its pre-sale high estimate and is the current world record for the most expensive whisky sold at auction.
Without a doubt, the record will be smashed again soon when the next Macallan 1926 comes around, and most likely it will be from Cask #263.
