A bottle of Scotch whisky, the Macallan Adami 1926, was sold at Sotheby’s in London for almost 2.2 million pounds ($2.7 million), setting a new auction record for a bottle of wine or spirits. The bidding war between prospective buyers on the phone and in the room led to the record-breaking sale.
Only 40 bottles of The Macallan 1926 were bottled in 1986 after being aged in sherry casks for 60 years. Twelve of these bottles, including the one sold on Saturday, featured labels designed by Italian painter Valerio Adami. In 2019, another bottle from the same cask was sold by Sotheby’s for almost 1.5 million pounds, also setting a record for wine or spirits at the time.
According to Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s global head of spirits, The Macallan 1926 is the whisky that every auctioneer wants to sell and every collector wants to own. He described the record-breaking sale as “nothing short of momentous for the whisky industry as a whole.”
The bottle sold on Saturday was the first to undergo reconditioning by the distillery before the auction, including having the cork replaced and new glue applied to the corners of the bottle labels. The final price, including the buyer’s premium, was 2,187,500 pounds ($2,714,250), well exceeding the pre-sale estimate of 750,000 pounds to 1.2 million pounds.
Macallan’s Master Whisky Maker Kirsteen Campbell, who gave the whisky a sniff during the reconditioning, described it as having notes of rich dark fruits, black cherry compote, sticky dates, and intense sweet antique oak. She also noted the presence of dark chocolate, treacle, and ginger, calling it a very special moment to experience the opening of this iconic 60 Years Old single malt.