Sotheby’s is Selling One of the World’s Most Coveted Whisky Bottles

“This story is also part of a new series on the convergence of art and luxury. See all of our reporting on the topic here.”

On October 9, Sotheby’s will take one of the world’s most famous bottles of whisky back to its origins for the house’s first-ever sale at The Macallan Estate in Speyside, Scotland. The bottle — “The Macallan Fine & Rare 60 Years Old 1926” — has a high estimate of £2.2 million ($3 million), and is the auction’s top lot.
It was distilled in 1926 and bottled six decades later in 1986, after maturing in sherry-seasoned oak cask No. 263 at iconic The Macallan distillery. Only 40 bottles were drawn from the cask. Fourteen were given the “Fine & Rare” label, while 12 were designed by British artist Sir Peter Blake and another 12 by Italian artist Valerio Adami. Two were left unlabeled, one of which was later hand-painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon.

The “Fine & Rare” bottle hitting the auction block is one of the original 14. Its £1.7 million to £2.2 million ($2.2 million to $3 million) estimate means it is likely to rival the record for a bottle of whisky, set by another Macallan 1926 at Sotheby’s in London three years ago, when an Adami-labelled example went for £2.2 million ($2.7 million).

“‘The Macallan 1926’ stands as one of the most iconic and coveted spirits ever produced,” Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s global head of whisky and spirits, said in a statement. “To celebrate its centenary with the first-ever auction held at a Scotch whisky distillery is a landmark moment for the world of whisky collecting.”

The sale comes as the broader rare-whisky market has cooled from the extraordinary growth of recent years. Knight Frank’s latest Luxury Investment Index, using data from Rare Whisky 101, found that rare whisky bottles fell 13.6 percent over the 12 months to mid-2025 and were down 25.3 percent over five years. But at the very top end, the market continues to produce extraordinary results for bottles with exceptional rarity and provenance.

Fowle told ARTnews that the profile of the whisky buyer has also shifted. When he joined Sotheby’s in 2019, he said, around 80 percent of the house’s whisky buyers were in Asia. “That’s moved swiftly westward,” he said, with the US now the leading country by number of buyers.

He also sees a distinction between people who buy whisky to drink and those who buy it primarily to collect. “There’s a natural cut off at around the £5,000 mark,” Fowle said. Above that level, he added, buyers tend to think much harder before opening a bottle.

“There’s a sort of wealth to enthusiasm ratio,” he said. “You’ll find that actually wealthy people, they kind of under-drink their wealth. They could afford to drink, you know, £10,000 bottles every day, and they tend not to. Whereas people who are super enthusiastic will over-drink their wealth.”

A special version of “The Macallan’s Romantica Collection” made specifically for the sale in Scotland is another headline lot. The lot consists of three bottles featuring work by Blake, Adami, and Dillon, bottled at 85.2 proof. Only two examples of each artist edition were made at that strength. One set is being offered at Sotheby’s, while the matching three-bottle set will remain permanently in The Macallan’s archive. The auction set, estimated at £60,000 to £100,000 ($80,000 to $130,000), comes with a bespoke oak cabinet containing original materials connected to the artists’ work.

Other notable lots include “The Macallan The Reach 81 Years Old,” estimated at £90,000 to £140,000 ($120,000 to $185,000), and the complete Macallan in Lalique Six Pillars Collection, estimated at £260,000-£350,000 ($340,000 to $460,000). The six-decanter collection was released between 2005 and 2016 in collaboration with French crystal maker Lalique.

Fowle also pointed to Macallan’s early understanding of whisky as a collectible. The distillery, he told ARTnews, “had an eye on the way people liked to collect whisky at a time when other people weren’t really taking interest in the collector market.” That foresight, he explained, meant Macallan was “sort of ahead of the game.”