On the 3rd of October 2018, the world’s most sought-after whisky – 60-year-old Macallan Valerio Adami from 1926 was auctioned for a record of $1.1 million.
According to the auctioneer Bonham’s, this was purchases by a private collector from Asia over the phone. The company sold another of the 12 bottles with a label by the Italian artist Adami in May this year for $1.06 million.
According to Martin Green, a whisky specialist from the auction, these type of collector whiskies are probably not ever drunk because of its rarity. “Obviously we don’t know what will happen to it, but anyone who can spend around a million pounds for a bottle of whisky could afford to drink it. But it’s an object of beauty in its own right — almost a museum piece”, says Martin Green.
According to another specialist at Bohman’s, the 60-year-old Macallan Valerio Adami is “one of the rarest and most desirable bottles ever produced”, a “Rolls-Royce of malts”. The auction house even said that the price included a bid of 700,000 pounds, or about $900,000, plus a £148,000 sales premium.
This bottle was sold in Edinburgh, sitting on a display stand covered in tartan and encased in a specially designed cabinet.
The Rolls-Royce of Malts
In 1986, only 24 bottles of the Macallan Valerio were bottled. Macallan is still one of the best-known Speyside distillers of Scotland. Its incredible portfolio offers a variety of different collections that are worth trying. Most of them require a much smaller investment; however, they are still unique in its own way. This allows you and me to experience top whiskies at a much lower price with all the brands quality and expertise.
For this collection, Macallan commissioned Adami and Peter Blake to design each of the labels of the 12 bottles. Adami and Peter Blake are known for co-designing the album sleeve for the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”.
According to the renowned international whisky consultant, Charles MacLean, “Macallan single malt is the darling of whisky collectors and The Macallan Adami 1926 – with its Peter Blake stablemate – sits at the very pinnacle of the distillery’s distinguished output. All the appeal of Scotch whisky – the myth, the tradition and the romance – find its ultimate expression in this bottle.”
Currently, no one knows how many 60-year-old Macallan Valerio Adami still exist. Some believe that many were destroyed in an earthquake in Japan in 2011, while others believe that at least one of them has been opened and drunk.
