The most expensive whiskey in the world is also a bit Italian

The figure reached by a bottle of whisky from a highly limited series was staggering. On November 18th, a Macallan "Valerio Adami" 1926 vastly exceeded the initial estimate of £750,000 and was sold for over £2 million by Sotheby’s auction house. This record-setting sale is described by Sotheby's Global Head of Spirits, Jonny Fowle, as "epoch-making for the entire whisky industry".

An ultra-rare whisky

Only forty bottles of this particular whisky were ever produced. It was bottled in 1986 after ageing for sixty years in sherry casks. This extremely limited series was offered to the brand's top clients and would typically not be available for purchase to affluent collectors. However, in recent years, some of these bottles have been auctioned off, fetching record-breaking amounts.

Out of the forty bottles, fourteen feature the iconic "Fine and Rare label". Two unlabelled bottles were hand-painted by the Irish artist Michael Dillon with an image of Macallan's Easter Elchies House. One was sold in 2018, becoming the first whisky bottle to surpass the million-pound mark, while the second bottle is currently untraceable. The remaining 24 bottles were personalised by the English artist Sir Peter Blake and the Italian artist Valerio Adami, each designing the label for 12 bottles.

The records achieved

Indeed, it is precisely one of the ultra-rare bottles (specifically number 12) designed by Adami that has reached, for the first time ever, the figure of £2.2 million (approximately 2.5 million euro). This record is accompanied by another: it is the first bottle to have been reconditioned by the Macallan Distillery before being put up for auction, involving a replacement of the capsule and stopper.

The process involved taking a sample of the old capsule and subsequently sending it to the Austrian manufacturer to recreate an identical replacement. A 1 ml sample of liquid was then extracted for comparison with that from another 1926 bottle at the Edrington offices in Glasgow. Fowle stated that the reconditioning and analysis of the liquid have elevated it "to an unmatched status" and will become "the foundation of the entire authenticity of Macallan 1926".