Sotheby's to auction The Ultimate Whisky Collection, which includes some legendary Macallans, Balvenies & Bowmores
September 9, 2019: Fine scotch whiskey has never been out of demand. Acquiescing to the trend, Sotheby’s is presenting The Ultimate Whisky Collection, one of the most valuable collection of whisky ever to be sold at auction. A most comprehensive range of prestigious Scotch whisky coming from a private ‘cellar’, the collection is estimated to bring in the region of $4.8 million.
The sale will open for online bidding on September 27, 2019, and culminate in a live auction on October 24 at the Olympia event space in West Kensington, London, alongside RM Sotheby’s sale of collectible motor cars on the same day, an annual highlight on the European collector car calendar since 2007.
The Ultimate Whisky Collection is defined by its strong representation of The Macallan bottlings. Comprising half of the lots in the sale and with a combined estimated value in excess of £2.2 million, this is the most comprehensive collection of the Macallan Fine and Rare series ever offered at auction.
The outstanding line-up is headed by the originally-labelled 60 years old The Macallan 1926 from cask #263. Cask 263 yielded only 40 bottles, considered the ‘holy grail’ of whiskies; 12 bottles were labelled by Peter Blake, 12 by Valerio Adami, and two bottles were sold individually and given private labels, one of which was hand-painted by Irish artist Michael Dillon. The remaining 14 were bottled as the anchor for the Fine and Rare series and labelled as such, making them the oldest bottles in the iconic ‘Fine and Rare’ series, both by age and by vintage.
In the last two years, three versions containing liquid from Cask 263 have all broken records at auction, but the fourth bottling from this cask has not been seen at auction for over a decade. The Macallan 60 Years Old, Fine & Rare Series is the only bottle required to complete both the full collections of bottlings from cask 263 and the Fine and Rare vertical, a series to which The Macallan is continuing to add releases annually.
Another beautiful part of the collection is two complete Macallan in Lalique Six Pillars Collections presented in bespoke, hand-made cabinets commissioned by Sotheby’s and designed by British craftsman James Laycock. A rare collection of Macallan Fine and Rare Miniature bottles in an exclusively commissioned lockable wall-mounted cabinet, also designed by Mr. Laycock, is also part of the auction.
Glenfiddich and Balvenie’s oldest bottlings, including Balvenie 50 year old 1937, Glenfiddich 50 year old (1st and 2nd releases), and Glenfiddich 64 year old 1937 are available under the hammer, so are Silvano Samaroli’s iconic releases, including Bowmore 18 year Bouquet, Laphroaig 15 year old Sherry Cask 1967, Laphroaig 1970, Springbank 12 year old and Ardbeg Sherry Wood 1974.
Post your comment