A bottle of the world’s most expensive whiskey could fetch £1.2 million at auction next month.
The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 was one of 12 bottles produced in 1986 by the Speyside distillery bearing a label by Italian pop artist Adami.
It is drawn from the legendary Macallan cask number 263: in recent years, bottles from this cask have crossed the £1 million mark and set a series of world record prices at auction.
The rare bottle, which has undergone authenticity testing, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in London on November 18 and is estimated to fetch between £750,000 and £1.2 million.
The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 was one of 12 bottles produced in 1986 by the Speyside distillery bearing a label by Italian pop artist Adami.
Taken from the legendary Macallan cask number 263, bottles from this cask have surpassed the £1 million mark in recent years.
The rare bottle, which has undergone authenticity testing, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in London on November 18 and is estimated to fetch between £750,000 and £1.2 million.
The Macallan 1926 has long been recognized as the most sought-after Scottish whisky.
Aged in sherry casks for 60 years, just 40 bottles of The Macallan 1926 were bottled in 1986, representing at the time the oldest vintage Macallan ever produced.
Originally bottled as corporate gifts for the distillery’s most valued customers, the whiskey has since become recognized as “the rarest and most valuable whiskey in the world.”
The current world auction record for a bottle of wine or spirits was set in 2019 when a bottle from the same cask, bearing the distillery’s iconic Fine and Rare label, sold at Sotheby’s for £1,452,000 .
Next month’s sale will mark the first time one of the 40 bottles has been auctioned at Sotheby’s since the current record was set.
Jonny Fowle, global head of spirits at Sotheby’s, described it as “the most desirable bottle of whiskey to ever hit the market.”
The Macallan 1926 has long been recognized as the most sought-after Scottish whiskey
Next month’s sale will mark the first time one of the 40 bottles has been auctioned at Sotheby’s since the current record was set.
It is further distinguished by the fact that it is the first bottle to have been reconditioned by the Macallan distillery before being presented at auction, making it “the basis for all other bottles from 1926 which could be tested in the future.
This process involved replacing the capsule and cork, applying new glue to the corners of the bottle labels, and taking a 1ml liquid sample to test with another 1926 bottle in the Edrington offices in Glasgow.
In order to repackage the capsule, a sample of the old capsule was used as a match material by an Austrian producer to recreate an identical replacement matching the original.
Mr Fowle said: “The Macallan 1926 is the whiskey 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 Macallan Distillery to repackage and perform clinical analysis on this bottle and liquid has elevated it to unprecedented status.
“Now, as the foundation of all the authenticity of the Macallan 1926 and with its condition approved by Master Distiller Kirsten Campbell, this must surely be the most desirable bottle of whiskey to ever hit 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’ spirit safe.
The Speyside distillery commissioned world-renowned Italian pop artist Adami to design the label for 12 bottles, while fellow artist Peter Blake designed 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 without any labels, one of which was hand-painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon. When it sold in 2018, it became the first bottle of whiskey to exceed £1 million.
It is unknown how many of them still exist. One of them was reportedly destroyed in a 2011 earthquake in Japan, and at least one was opened and consumed. The remaining bottle, without a label, is missing.
Valerio Adami, born in 1935, is an Italian artist famous for painting bold, flat shapes outlined with thick black lines, in a style reminiscent of comic strips. He was recommended to the Macallan by their Italian agent, Armando Giovinetti.
