The headline lot, a 60-year-old Fine and Rare from cask 263, is estimated at £1.7 million to £2.2 million
On October 9, Sotheby's will hold the first auction in its history inside a Scotch whisky distillery. The sale, called Live from The Macallan Estate, takes place at The Macallan's home in Speyside and marks the centenary of the distillation of the 1926 whisky, the most valuable ever sold at auction, according to The Spirits Business.
The headline lot is a bottle of The Macallan Fine and Rare 60 Years Old 1926, estimated at £1.7 million to £2.2 million. The whisky came from cask 263, a sherry-seasoned oak cask, distilled in 1926 and bottled in 1986 after 60 years of maturation. According to The Whisky Wire, the cask yielded only 40 bottles, and at most 14 received the Fine and Rare label. It is bottled at 42.6% ABV.
It is the same vintage as the world record. In November 2023, Sotheby's London sold a 1926 bottle with a label by the Italian painter Valerio Adami for £2.2 million, or US$2.7 million, the highest price ever paid for a bottle of whisky at auction. The story of cask 263 and the other bottles in the series is in the guide to the world's most expensive whiskies that Bebidário published in September.
The sale brings together more than 40 lots, almost all from private collections. Among them, The Whisky Wire highlights the Romantica collection in its Unique Artists edition, estimated at £60,000 to £100,000; The Reach 81 Years Old, at £90,000 to £140,000; the complete Six Pillars collection in Lalique crystal, at £260,000 to £350,000; and a 32-year-old Fine & Rare distilled in 1937, at £16,000 to £22,000.
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby's global head of whisky and spirits, called the centenary auction a landmark for whisky collecting, according to The Spirits Business. To get to know the distillery through far more affordable bottles, the Bebidário catalog has The Macallan 12 Anos Sherry Oak and The Macallan 12 Anos Double Cask.
Sources: The Spirits Business (September 30, 2026), The Whisky Wire (September 29, 2026).
