Last October, a bottle of Scotch whiskey had the honor of becoming the most expensive wine or spirit ever purchased at auction. When the deck struck the final blow, the bid had reached $1.9 million.
It was a Macallan Fine and Rare from 1926, a whiskey so exceptional that with that figure it stole the position from another exactly the same bottle!: another Macallan 1926 sold just a year ago at another auction for 1.2 million dollars.
Since then, at least six bottles of this same whiskey have been sold without ever lowering its million dollar price.
But what does this spirit have to be the most expensive in the world? Well, part of the answer lies in the amber liquid and part, too, in its container.
To begin to understand it, you have to go back to 1926, when The Macallan distillery, in Speyside (Scotland), decided to use their barrel number 263, which had previously contained sherry, to age their new single malt. And the whiskey has been aging in it for a whopping 60 years.
When they decided to open the barrel in 1986, its content was enough to fill only 40 bottles. Thus was born The Macallan 1926 – 60 Year Old, a whiskey so special that it was necessary to ‘dress’ it to measure.
To this end, in 1989 Sir Peter Blake (the artist responsible, among others, for the cover of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album) was chosen to design the label for the first 12 bottles.
The success of the proposal led to another legendary pop art artist, the Italian Valerio Adami, being chosen four years later to paint another dozen containers by hand.
And while those first 24 units unleashed madness in private sales and auctions, the Irish artist Michael Dillon was selected, as early as 1999, to hand-paint just one bottle, with whose design he wanted to evoke Easter Elchies House, home to The Macallan.
What happened to the other 15 bottles of this unique vintage? Already with their usual label, they were included in The Macallan’s Fine & Rare collection, although their price did not stop being outstanding: in 2007, barely a decade after their launch, they were already paid $22,600.
But let’s take a look at another 9 astronomically priced scotch, and if we start with the highest, another stop in Speyside is inevitable:
The Macallan in Lalique, Cire Perdue
There is only one bottle of this 64-year-old whiskey, designed by the prestigious Lalique glassware to commemorate the 150th anniversary of its creator’s birth. So much exclusivity raises its price to $460,000.
Dalmore 64 Trinity
In this case, as its name indicates, there were only three bottles. They contained a whiskey so exquisite and refined that they were paid for each of them 160,100 dollars.
25-Year-Old Pure Pot Still Whiskey
This was one of the last bottles produced by the popular Irish distillery Nun’s Island, which closed its doors in 1913, an honor that brings the price of this whiskey up to 143,000 euros.
W & J Mutter’s Bowmore 1850
On the date on the label, William Mutter decided to sell his stake in the distillery that bears his name. Since then, the bottle has been passed from hand to hand through his heirs, causing it to reach an auction price of $60,135.
The Dalmore 62 Single Hiland Malt Scotch
The Dalmore produced just twelve bottles of this very special edition, which has fetched $58,000 at auction. Legend has it that the man who paid that price was the only one who dared to uncork it to taste the whisky.
The Dalmore Oculus
Malts matured since the mid-19th century were used to produce this exclusive distillate that was only enough to fill a bottle, a container that therefore had to be up to the task: it was made of Baccarat crystal, and for it they have paid 46,600 dollars.
Glenavon Special Liqueur Whiskey
This distillate is pure history. Among other things, no one is able to date the whiskey exactly, given that the Glenavon distillery closed its doors in 1850. Which, on the other hand, does allow a minimum age of the liquor to be estimated, and that raises its price to $28,900. .
Glenfiddich Rare Collection, 1937
Another exclusive bottle, in this case due to its special capacity: it is the only 750ml bottle that exists of this distillate. The reason is found in the import regulations of the United States in those years. Such a curious historical legacy has reached $20,000 on the market.
Selene Dalmore
This whiskey was aged for 58 years, a liquid elixir that was extracted from barrels in 1781. Only 30 pieces were bottled for the whole world, which makes its value rise to 18,750 dollars.
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