Record for priciest whiskey ‘smashed’ at London auction

A LOT OF SPICE AND WOOD | A member of Sotheby’s staff shows a bottle of The Macallan 1926, which the auction house described as the “most valuable whiskey in the world.” (Agence France-Presse)

LONDON — A bottle of The Macallan 1926, described by Sotheby’s auction house as the “most valuable whiskey in the world,” went under the hammer on Saturday for a record £2.1 million.

The rare bottle had been expected to raise between £750,000 and £1.2 million but outstripped estimates to fetch £2,187,500 (2.5 million euros, $2.7 million).

The sale set a “new record for any bottle of spirit or wine sold at auction,” Sotheby’s told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

One of the Macallan 1926 bottles had set a previous record for the most expensive bottle ever sold in 2019 when it fetched £1.5 million at the same London auction house.

Sotheby’s head of whiskey Jonny Fowle told AFP ahead of the sale that he had been allowed to sample the prized whiskey.

“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 color.

“It’s not a whiskey 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.