There are only 40 bottles of the Macallan Adami 1926, a Scotch whiskey aged for 60 years in sherry casks.
According to Drink Business, Sotheby’s will sell one of these bottles at auction and pre-sale prices indicate that it will fetch between $900 000 and $1.5 million (about R17 million – R28 million).
This limited edition is the oldest year ever produced by Macallan, and after being bottled in 1986, it was only available to the maker’s top customers. Only some of the bottles were for sale, and not all of them had been consumed.
One of the bottles is said to have been opened and consumed (based on photos from the special event) and another is believed to have been destroyed in an earthquake in Japan in 2011.
The whiskey’s packaging has a few variations that make it even more attractive to collectors.
Sotheby’s Macallan 1926 has a label designed in 1993 by an Italian painter, Valerio Adami.
Some of the bottles have the words “fine and rare” on the label. Two bottles did not have any labels. One of the bottles’ label was hand painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon. It is unknown where the other unlabeled bottle is. Pop artist Sir Peter Blake created black and white sketches and photographs of the Roaring ’20s for around 12 bottles.
Sotheby’s auctioneers describe the Macallan Adami 1926 as “the world’s most valuable whisky” and are excited to sell it. Their international head of spirits calls it “the one whiskey every auctioneer wants to sell and every collector wants to own”.
