Cheers! A bottle of Scotch whisky sells for a record $2.7 million at auction

LONDON – A bottle of Scotch whisky billed as “the most sought-after” on this planet offered Saturday for virtually 2.2 million kilos ($2.7 million), an auction record for a bottle of wine or spirits.

The Macallan Adami 1926 offered at Sotheby’s in London, after a bidding struggle between would-be patrons at the telephone and within the room.

Just 40 bottles of The Macallan 1926 have been bottled in 1986 after being elderly in sherry casks for 60 years. Twelve of the bottles, together with the only offered Saturday, had labels designed by way of Italian painter Valerio Adami.

Another bottle from the similar cask was once offered by way of Sotheby’s in 2019 for virtually 1.5 million kilos, which was once a record for wine or spirits till Saturday.

“The Macallan 1926 is the one whisky that every auctioneer wants to sell and every collector wants to own,” stated Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s world head of spirits.

He stated the record-breaking sale was once “nothing short of momentous for the whisky industry as a whole. ”

The bottle offered Saturday is the primary to have gone through reconditioning by way of the distillery forward of auction. This integrated changing the cork and making use of new glue to the corners of the bottle labels.

The ultimate value of 2,187,500 kilos ($2,714,250) contains a price referred to as the patron’s top class on best of the sale value of 1.75 million kilos. The value neatly exceeded the pre-sale estimate of 750,000 kilos to one.2 million kilos.

And what’s a $2.7 million whisky like? Macallan’s Master Whisky Maker Kirsteen Campbell, who gave the tipple a sniff throughout the reconditioning, stated it contained notes of “rich dark fruits, black cherry compote alongside sticky dates, followed by intense sweet antique oak.”

“Dark chocolate, treacle, ginger … the notes go on and on,” she stated. “It was once a very particular second to revel in the outlet of this iconic 60 Years Old unmarried malt, first bottled 37 years in the past, and I am hoping the brand new custodian will experience the similar privilege.”