"A bottle of The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60 Year Old sold for $2.7m at Sotheby's, becoming the most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold at auction. The sale smashed its pre-auction estimate by more than $1m and eclipsed the previous record by roughly $800,000 - a figure that, as of 2026, still stands untouched."
"The Macallan continues to dominate the upper end of the auction market, it is far from the only distillery attracting serious bids. From one-off collections to artist collaborations and oversized record-breakers, the market for collectible whisky has expanded well beyond the traditional single bottle sale."
"This prized bottle of The Macallan is one of just 40 from what is widely considered to be the holy grail of whisky collecting. The 1926 Fine & Rare 60 Year Old was drawn from Cask 263 in 1986 but was never actually offered for sale. Instead, The Macallan reserved bottles for its most prized clients and customers."
"Of the 40 bottles, 12 were given labels designed by iconic pop artist Sir Peter Blake. Another 12 were designed by the Italian pop artist Valerio Adami. Two were released without labels (one was later handpainted by Michael Dillon and the other is unaccounted for) while the remaining 14 were released with original distillery labels."
A bottle of The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60 Year Old sold for $2.7 million at Sotheby’s in November 2023, becoming the most expensive whisky ever sold at auction. The final price exceeded the pre-auction estimate by more than $1 million and surpassed the prior record by about $800,000. The Macallan remains dominant at the top end of the auction market, but other distilleries also attract major bids. Collectible whisky demand has expanded beyond single-bottle sales to include one-off collections, artist collaborations, and record-breaking sets. The 1926 Fine & Rare 60 Year Old came from Cask 263 in 1986 and was reserved for prized clients rather than being offered broadly. Labels included designs by Sir Peter Blake and Valerio Adami, with additional bottles released with original distillery labels or without labels.
Read at Elite Traveler
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