One of the world’s most sought-after whiskys, a 60-year-old Macallan Valerio Adami 1926, was auctioned at Bonhams in Edinburgh this Wednesday for a record of £ 848,750 (€ 955,654). The buyer is a private collector from Asia who made a bid by phone, the auctioneer of Bonhams told the Reuters news agency. In May of this year, the company also sold one of the twelve other bottles with a label from the Italian artist Valerio Adami. That bottle was sold for £ 814,091 (€ 924,000).
Such whiskeys are collector’s items because there are not a dozen of them roaming the world. Because they are a rarity, they probably will not really be drunk, thinks Martin Green, whiskey connoisseur at Bonhams. “It’s the Rolls-Royce among the malts,” says Green. “We do not know what will happen, of course, but those who can spend about a million pounds for a bottle of whiskey can also afford to drink it. But the bottle of whiskey itself is already an object of beauty, almost a museum piece. ‘
Only 24 bottles of whiskey, bottled in 1986, were produced by Macallan, one of Speyside’s most famous distillers, the Scottish region known for its whiskey quality. Macallan commissioned Valerio Adami and Peter Blake to design the labels of twelve bottles. Adami and Blake also designed the album cover of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ by The Beatles.
It is unknown how many Adamis are still there. It is said that in 2011 one was destroyed by an earthquake in Japan. Furthermore, it is assumed that at least one bottle has been opened and emptied…
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