The 60-year-old Fine & Rare bottle came £62,500 short of the 2023 world record and beat the previous high for its own edition
A bottle of The Macallan 1926 Fine & Rare sold for £2,125,000, or US$2,807,975, at the auction Sotheby's held on Friday, October 9, inside The Macallan Estate, the distillery's home in Speyside, Scotland. It was the first auction ever held on the estate, in the year the whisky marks a century since it was distilled.
In pounds, it is the second most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold at auction, according to The Spirits Business. The record still belongs to another 1926 bottle, the one with a label painted by the Italian artist Valerio Adami, sold by Sotheby's in London in November 2023 for £2,187,500, or US$2,714,250. In dollars, however, this week's price is higher because of the exchange rate, and DRAM Scotland describes it as the most valuable bottle of whisky ever auctioned in that currency. The result also beat the previous high for the 1926 Fine & Rare bottles: £1.5 million, in 2019.
The whisky was distilled in 1926 and bottled in 1986, at 60 years old. It came from a single sherry-seasoned oak cask, the same one as the Adami bottle, which yielded just 40 bottles. According to The Spirits Business, 14 of them received the Fine & Rare label in 2002. According to DRAM Scotland, it is the oldest vintage ever bottled by The Macallan, and the distillery commissioned artist labels for 25 of those bottles, 12 of them from the English artist Peter Blake.
The 42 lots, almost all from private collections, totaled £3.3 million, or US$4.4 million, above estimate. According to Sotheby's, 86% of them sold above their high estimate. Fifty collectors followed the sale in person, alongside online and telephone bidders. The second most expensive lot was the Six Pillars collection, in Lalique crystal, at £350,000. The Romantica collection, with works by Peter Blake, Michael Dillon and Valerio Adami, went for £162,500, which will be split among three charities. The Reach 81 Years Old sold for £131,250.
The buyer of the 1926 bottle was not identified. Jonny Fowle, global head of whisky and spirits at Sotheby's, led the auction and told The Spirits Business that the result shows the fascination The Macallan 1926 holds for collectors around the world.
In the Bebidário catalog, the distillery is represented by far more affordable expressions, such as The Macallan 12 Year Old Double Cask and The Macallan 12 Year Old Sherry Oak.
Sources: The Spirits Business (October 12, 2026), DRAM Scotland (October 12, 2026).
