It’s been quite the year for whisky auctions, especially those featuring bottles of 60-year-old Macallan.
In May, a bottle of Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 sold in Hong Kong for just over $1 million, at the time setting a record for the world’s most expensive whisky. Last month, that record was broken by another bottle of the same whisky, which sold for $1.1 million.
Finally, on November 29, a bottle of 60-year-old Macallan sold at a Christie’s auction in London for £1,200,000 (roughly $1,528,800), smashing the world record for the third time this year.
The whisky, which Christie’s describes as an “ultra-rare elixir,” is presented in a one-of-a-kind bottle, painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon. The bottle’s illustration depicts the Easter Elchies House of The Macallan against the backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.
This year’s prior two record-breaking bottlings came from a collection of 24 numbered bottles, 12 of which artist Peter Blake decorated, with the other 12 designed by Italian artist Valerio Adami. All three contain the same Scotch, a 1926 Macallan single malt which spent 60 years maturing in ex-sherry casks.
“The sale represents a landmark moment in the whisky market,” Christie’s International Director of Wine Tim Triptree MW said in a press release.
