A prohibition-era bottle of whisky aged for 60 years before it was bottled sold for US$2.7 million at auction on Saturday, auction house Sotheby’s announced.
There were only 40 bottles made of the Macallan 1926 single malt, a Scotch whisky bottled in 1986 prized by collectors that comes in a variety of custom labels.
Twelve of those bottles, including the one sold on Saturday, featured a design from an Italian painter named Valerio Adami. One of these 12 bottles was thought to have been destroyed during the 2011 Japan earthquake, making the product even more rare.
The whisky’s rarity makes it highly sought after by collectors – in 2018, a bottle from the same batch sold for US$1.5 million.
In 2019, a bottle sold for US$1.9 million, previously the record-setter.
“The Macallan 1926 is the one whisky that every auctioneer wants to sell and every collector wants to own,” Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s global head of spirits, said.
Sotheby’s describes the record-breaking whisky as aged in “super-rich European oak, ex-sherry barrels” and bottled in 1986. When the auction house received the bottle, they worked with Macallan to replace the cork and capsule.
The taste of the whisky was described as containing “rich dark fruits, black cherry compote alongside sticky dates, followed by intense sweet antique oak,” according to Macallan’s Master Whisky Maker Kirsteen Campbell, who was present when the bottle was opened during the cork and capsule replacement.
“It was a very special moment to experience the opening of this iconic 60 year old single malt, first bottled 37 years ago, and I hope the new custodian will enjoy the same privilege,” Campbell told Associated Press.
Single-malt whisky, which can be extremely time-consuming and complicated to produce, has become trendy over the years, Business Insider previously reported, with collectors driving this popularity. Other players in the single-malt world include the Japanese brand Yamazaki. A collection of Yamazaki single-malt whisky bottles is expected to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction next week.