Bottle of the world’s most expensive whisky is set to fetch up to £1.2million at auction next month
- The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 was produced by Speyside distillery in 1986
- In recent years bottles from the cask have set a series of world record prices
A bottle of the world’s most expensive whisky could fetch up to £1.2 million at auction next month.
The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 was one of only 12 bottles produced in 1986 by the Speyside distillery featuring a label by Italian pop artist Adami.
It’s drawn from the Macallan’s legendary cask number 263 – in recent years bottles from this cask have broken the £1 million barrier and set a series of world record prices at auction.
The rare bottle, which has undergone tests for authenticity, will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London on November 18 and is estimated to be sold for £750,000 to £1.2 million.
The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 was one of only 12 bottles produced in 1986 by the Speyside distillery featuring a label by Italian pop artist Adami
Drawn from the Macallan’s legendary cask number 263, in recent years bottles from the cask have broken the £1 million barrier
The rare bottle, which has undergone tests for authenticity, will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London on November 18 and is estimated to be sold for £750,000 to £1.2 million
The Macallan 1926 has long been recognised as the most sought-after Scotch whisky.
Aged in sherry casks for 60 years, just 40 bottles of The Macallan 1926 were bottled in 1986, at the time representing the oldest Macallan vintage ever produced.
Originally bottled to offer as corporate gifts to the distillery’s most valued customers, the whisky has since become recognised as ‘the world’s rarest and most valuable whisky’.
The current world auction record for any bottle of wine or spirit was set in 2019 when a bottle from the same cask, with the distillery’s iconic Fine and Rare label, was sold at Sotheby’s for £1,452,000.
Next month’s sale will mark the first time one of the 40 bottles has come to auction at Sotheby’s since the current record was set.
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s Global Head of Spirits, described it as ‘the most desirable bottle of whisky ever to come to the market’.
The Macallan 1926 has long been recognised as the most sought-after Scotch whisky
Next month’s sale will mark the first time one of the 40 bottles has come to auction at Sotheby’s since the current record was set
The record-breaking bottles from the Macallan’s cask #263
1987
A Guinness record was set for ‘The World’s Most Expensive Spirit’, when a bottle was sold in New York for £5,000.
1991
A Sir Peter Blake labelled bottle sold in Glasgow for £6375
1996
A Valerio Adami labelled bottle sold in London for £12,000
2007
A Fine & Rare labelled bottle at Christies in New York sold for £45,293
2018
Five bottles were sold, breaking the world record price three times:
In March a Sir Peter Blake labelled bottle at Bonhams in Edinburgh for £615,062
In May a Sir Peter Blake labelled bottle at Bonhams in Hong Kong for £816,983
In May a Valerio Adami labelled bottle at Bonhams in Hong Kong for £886,112
In October a Valerio Adami labelled bottle at Bonhams in Edinburgh £848,750
In November the Michael Dillon labelled bottle sold at Christie’s in London for £1,200,000
2019
In March a Sir Peter Blake labelled bottle at Bonhams in Edinburgh for £615,062
In October, a Fine & Rare labelled bottle at Sotheby’s sold for £1,452,000 (hammer price £1.2m)
2020
A Valerio Adami labelled bottle was sold online by Whisky Auctioneer for £924,000 (hammer £825,000) — the first Scotch ever to break $1 million in an online sale.
2021
A Fine & Rare labelled bottle was sold online by Whisky Auctioneers for a hammer price of £1 million.
It is distinguished further by the fact that it is the first bottle to have undergone reconditioning by The Macallan Distillery ahead of being presented at auction, making it ‘the foundation for all other 1926 bottles that may undergo testing in the future’.
This process involved replacing both the capsule and the cork, applying new glue to the corners of the bottle labels and taking a 1ml liquid sample to test against another 1926 bottle at the Edrington offices in Glasgow.
In order to recondition the capsule, a sample swatch of the old capsule was used as a material match by a producer in Austria to recreate an identical replacement matching the original.
Mr Fowle said: ‘The Macallan 1926 is the one whisky that every auctioneer wants to sell and every collector wants to own.
‘I am extremely excited to bring a bottle to a Sotheby’s auction for the first time since we set the record for this vintage four years ago.
‘Working alongside our friends at The Macallan Distillery to recondition and perform clinical analysis on this bottle and liquid has elevated it to an unparalleled status.
‘Now, as the bedrock for all Macallan 1926 authenticity and with its condition approved by master distiller Kirsten Campbell, this must surely be the most desirable bottle of whisky ever to come to the market.’
The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 was produced in 1986, and elegantly presented in a specially commissioned cabinet or Tantalus, based on the traditional ‘Brass and Glass’ distillery spirit safe.
The Speyside distillery commissioned world-famous Italian pop artist Adami to design the label for 12 bottles, with fellow artist Peter Blake designing another label for a further dozen.
A maximum of 14 bottles were decorated with the distillery’s iconic Fine and Rare labels, and two bottles were released with no labels at all, one of which was hand painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon. When sold in 2018, it became the first bottle of whisky to surpass £1 million.
It is not known how many of them still exist. One is said to have been destroyed in an earthquake in Japan in 2011, and at least one is said to have been opened and consumed. The remaining unlabelled bottle is unaccounted for.
Valerio Adami, born in 1935, is an Italian artist famous for painting bold, flat forms outlined in thick, black lines, in a style reminiscent of comic art. He was recommended to The Macallan by their Italian agent, Armando Giovinetti.
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