Posted Date: 05 August 2009
A single bottle of whisky has become the most expensive sold at auction this year and at the same time become the most expensive bottle of 50 year old Macallan ever.
The bottle, sold at the McTear’s Rare & Collectible Whisky Sale for £11,750, was bought by a private collector from California.
The Macallan Anniversary 50 year old was just one of over sixty Macallan lots in the sale, representing the largest collection of this premiere malt to come to auction in recent years. The whisky is a bottling of three casks distilled between 1926 and 1928, and is accompanied with a letter of authenticity dated 4th July 1983.
Andrew Bell, McTear’s whisky specialist said, “We knew that out of almost 600 different lots the Macallan Anniversary 50 year old was the stand out bottle in the sale and its quite clear that others agreed. Whisky collectors from across the world joined the sale by phone and through the internet and the price paid is a reflection of its importance to collectors and investors in whisky.”
The McTear’s Rare & Collectible whisky sale sold 574 lots on Wednesday 5th August making it the largest sale of its kind in the world. Total sales were over 50% more than expected and reached almost £155,000 and included a 60 year old Royal Brackla which sold for £3800 and a limited edition 1965 bottle of Ardbeg, which sold for £3000 complete with glass museum case, cleaning kit and white gloves to handle the bottle.
In addition to the record collection of Macallan, the sale also included bottlings from all the major distilleries in Scotland including Springbank, Rosebank and Highland Park.
McTear’s Rare and Collectible whisky sale is held quarterly in Glasgow. At the last sale in May, a rare 1919 miniature of Springbank made a world record price of £1,800.
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