'Holy grail of whisky' sells for £2.1m at auction

A rare bottle of Scotch whisky distilled 100 years ago has sold for £2.1m ($2.8m) at a Sotheby's auction in Scotland.

Sold at the Macallan Estate in Speyside, it saw the Macallan 1926 became the second most valuable bottle of whisky ever sold, when measured in pounds.

It narrowly missed out on the previous record set by the Adami Edition of the same whisky from the same cask which fetched slightly more in 2023.

The spirit was bottled in 1986 after maturing for 60 years, with just 40 bottles drawn from a single sherry seasoned oak cask.

It is one of 14 bottles that were decorated with the Fine & Rare label that were first released in 2002.

Sotheby's has previously described it as The Macallan 1926 as the "holy grail" of whisky.

Cask number 263 was not considered particularly special when it was laid down in 1926 - a year that saw the General Strike, the first public demonstration of the television by inventor John Logie Baird and the birth of Sir David Attenborough.

For the next 60 years it slowly darkened and drew flavours from the cask's Spanish wood, and much of it - the Angel's Share - evaporated.

An inventory of the old warehouses in the 1980s revealed the whisky had matured into something special, and the cask contained enough for just 40 bottles.

Rather than putting them onto normal retail shelves, the distillery commissioned artists to design special labels for 25 of them.

The English pop artist Sir Peter Blake - famous for co-creating the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover - designed 12.

The Italian painter Valerio Ademi provided artwork for another 12 - although one of these is said to have been smashed during an earthquake in Japan.

The Irish artist Michael Dillon hand painted a single bottle, and the remaining 14 were released as part of the Macallan Fine & Rare series.

The auction was the first ever auction staged at the distillery itself and, according to Sotheby's, the first in any Scottish distillery at all.

It was held to mark 100 years since the distillation of the Macallan 1926, with more than 40 other lots also available.

The auction was an exclusive, invite-only event attended by 50 of the world's leading whisky collectors, with additional collectors bidding online.

Jonny Fowle, global head of whisky and spirits at Sotheby's, said: "Today's result reflects the enduring fascination that The Macallan 1926 inspires among collectors around the world.

"More than a century after it was distilled, it continues to stand alone as the benchmark for rarity, provenance and desirability in whisky.

"Achieving the second-highest price ever paid for a bottle of whisky at auction, and setting a new record for a Fine & Rare bottling, at the first auction held at The Macallan Estate during the centenary year of the vintage itself, is a remarkable milestone in the history of whisky collecting."

Macallan's creative director Jaume Ferras said the company was "humbled" by the response to the auction.

"It was a privilege to welcome Sotheby's and guests to our home, and to see such appreciation for whiskies that represent different chapters in our history," he added.