A bottle of The Macallan 1926, billed as the “most valuable whisky in the world” by Sotheby’s, sold for a record £2.1 million on Saturday.
The uncommon bottle was predicted to bring between £750,000 and £1.2 million, but it exceeded expectations, fetching £2,187,500 (2.5 million euros, $2.7 million).
According to Sotheby’s, the sale set a “new record for any bottle of spirit or wine sold at auction.”
A Macallan 1926 bottle had already established the record for the most expensive bottle ever sold in 2019, fetching £1.5 million at the same London auction house.
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s head of whiskey, told AFP ahead of the sale that he had been able to sample the rare liquor.
“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 said.
He said 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,” he said.
The bottles are among only 40 that Macallan, based in Moray, northern Scotland, has confirmed were bottled from Cask 263 in 1986.