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The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-year-old is considered to be the ‘Holy Grail’ of whisky by connoisseurs, collectors, and people like myself who will never even sniff a bottle in person but believe the experts when they say that this stuff is the nectar of the gods.
This super rare whisky was distilled in 1926 and then bottled in 1986. The limited-edition bottle was designed by world-famous Italian artist Valerio Adami which only added to the value. It’s both the rarity of this whisky and the value of the bottle’s artwork that makes it the ‘holy grail’ of whiskeys.
In total, only 12 bottles of the Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-year-old were ever produced and to this day it’s unclear how many of those bottles still exist. Earlier this year, another bottle of the Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-year-old was sold at an auction in Hong Kong for around $1,059,690.
According to the BBC, one of the 12 bottles was destroyed during an 2011 earthquake in Japan. I’ve also read recently that at least one of the bottles is known to have been drank. So at the absolute most there are 10 bottles of this left in the world and I’d be SHOCKED if we don’t continue to see it break world records.
Everyone expected that a world record would be set from the moment news broke that Bonham’s would be auctioning off a bottle of the exceedingly rare Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-year-old and yesterday, that world record was smashed. A bottle of this stuff sold for a whopping $1.1 MILLION.
It’s hard to believe that something so small, and something meant for drinking and not for looking at is worth so much damn money.
For more on this world record whisky auction, you can click here to visit the BBC.