The 'holy grail' of whisky sells for £2.1m at Scotland's first distillery auction

From the Newshound archive · first published 10 October 2026 · last updated 11 October 2026.

A 100-year-old bottle of The Macallan 1926 Fine & Rare has fetched £2,125,000 at an invite-only Sotheby's auction staged at the Macallan Estate in Speyside — the first auction ever held inside a Scottish distillery. Just 40 bottles were drawn from a single sherry-seasoned oak cask numbered 263, bottled in 1986 after six decades of maturation. The sale makes it the second most valuable bottle of whisky ever sold in sterling, but the most valuable ever sold when measured in US dollars.

Only 14 Fine & Rare label bottles exist, first released in 2002, making this label's appearance at auction exceptionally rare.

Sotheby's Jonny Fowle said the result reflects 'the enduring fascination that The Macallan 1926 inspires among collectors around the world' more than a century after distillation.

Artists commissioned to decorate 25 of the 40 bottles included pop artist Sir Peter Blake, who co-created the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album cover.