A unique bottle of Macallan whisky today set a new world auction record after it was sold for a staggering £1.2m at Christie's in London.
The Macallan 1926 60-Year-Old, presented in a unique bottle hand-painted by
the Irish artist Michael Dillon, was sold as part of Christie's Fine & Rare Collection auction.
The bottle, featuring Dillon’s depiction of The Macallan’s historic home, Easter Elchies House, built in 1700, is the first whisky to break the £1million mark.
It made a hammer price of exactly £1m -- with the actual sum paid rising to £1.2m including buyer's premiums.
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The only one of its kind and unseen for nearly 20 years, the bottle had been described as "the most collectable single malt produced in the 20th century" and the "Holy Grail" for collectors.
Speaking ahead of the sale, Tim Triptree, Christie’s International Director of Wine, said: "This whisky is basically the finest and most collectable single malt produced in the 20th century.
"I would like to think that someone will open it. Whisky is produced to be drunk and enjoyed -- although it’s fair to say that each wee dram of this particular whisky is going to work out to be pretty expensive."
The previous world record for a bottle sold at auction was set only last month when another Macallan 1926 60-Year-Old, this time one of 12 featuring a label designed by the Italian pop artist Valerio Adami, made £848,750 at Bonhams in Edinburgh.
The Speyside distillery asked pop artists Adami and Peter Blake, the artist responsible for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover, to design labels for the 1926 Macallan 60-Year-Old malt, and 12 individually numbered bottles from each artist were released after the whisky had spent 60 years maturing in ex-sherry casks prior to bottling in 1986.
Less well-known was that one bottle from the rare cask was commissioned and hand-painted by Irish artist Dillon and offered for sale at Fortnum & Mason in London in 1999.
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Nearly 20 years on, The Macallan were unsure that the bottle still existed and were said to have been "excited" at its re-emergence. Highlighting the strength of the current whisky market, prior to this year, the previous auction of a Macallan 60-year-old with an Adami label was in 2007, which sold for $75,000.
Christie's said they were "delighted to bring this unique bottle to market". Mr Triptree said that after spending 60 years in cask, the record-breaking whisky would be dark in colour -- "amber, a bit of mahogany in there".
He added that, should it be opened, the taste would be "incredibly complex". "The flavours are going to be so concentrated, and it’s going to have so many aromas, that each time you get to the glass I’m sure you would be smelling and tasting something different."
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