LONDON– A bottle of Scotch whisky billed as “the most in-demand” worldwide offered Saturday for nearly 2.2 million pounds ($2.7 million), an auction record for a bottle of red wine or spirits.
The Macallan Adami 1926 cost Sotheby’s in London, after a bidding war in between prospective purchasers on the phone and in the space.
Simply 40 bottles of The Macallan 1926 were bottled in 1986 after being aged in sherry casks for 60 years. Twelve of the bottles, consisting of the one offered Saturday, had actually labels developed by Italian painter Valerio Adami.
Another bottle from the very same cask was offered by Sotheby’s in 2019 for nearly 1.5 million pounds, which was a record for red wine or spirits till Saturday.
“The Macallan 1926 is the one whisky that every auctioneer wishes to offer and every collector wishes to own,” stated Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s worldwide head of spirits.
He stated the record-breaking sale was “absolutely nothing except special for the whisky market as a whole.”
The bottle offered Saturday is the very first to have actually gone through reconditioning by the distillery ahead of auction. This consisted of changing the cork and using brand-new glue to the corners of the bottle labels.
The last rate of 2,187,500 pounds ($2,714,250) consists of a charge called the purchaser’s premium on top of the list price of 1.75 million pounds. The cost well went beyond the pre-sale quote of 750,000 pounds to 1.2 million pounds.
And what is a $2.7 million whisky like? Macallan’s Master Whisky Maker Kirsteen Campbell, who provided the tipple a smell throughout the reconditioning, stated it consisted of notes of “abundant dark fruits, black cherry compote along with sticky dates, followed by extreme sweet antique oak.”
“Dark chocolate, treacle, ginger … the notes continue,” she stated. “It was a really unique minute to experience the opening of this renowned 60 Years Old single malt, very first bottled 37 years back, and I hope the brand-new custodian will delight in the very same advantage.”
