£1 MILLION WHISKY?

Rare single malt, described as the Holy Grail of Scotch, expected to set record price at auction

IT is a whisky so rare that is described as the ‘Holy Grail’ for collectors.

And now a bottle of the Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-year-old could break all records when it goes under the hammer in October.

Despite initial estimates that the bottle could fetch £700,000-900,000 at the Bonhams’ Whisky Sale in Edinburgh, experts predict it could smash the £1million barrier for the first time at a public auction.

Before the whisky was bottled in 1986, the Macallan commissioned Valerio Adami and Peter Blake to design labels for a very limited edition of 24 bottles – 12 by each artist.

In May this year, a bottle of Macallan Valerio Adami sold at Bonhams in Hong Kong for £814,081, setting the current record. At the same auction, a Blake bottle sold for £751,703.

The whisky was produced by the Speyside distillery to offer as corpo-

‘Exceptional rarity and quality’

rate gifts to its most valued customers. It is not known how many still exist, but one is said to have been destroyed in a Japanese earthquake in 2011, and at least one is thought to have been opened and consumed.

Martin Green, Bonhams’ whisky specialist in Edinburgh, said: ‘The Macallan 1926 60-year-old has been described as the Holy Grail of whisky.

‘Its exceptional rarity and quality put it in a league of its own, and the world’s most serious whisky collectors will wait patiently for many years for a bottle to come onto the market.’

Adami is famed for painting bold, flat forms outlined in thick, black lines, in a style reminiscent of comic art. Blake is best known for co-creating the Beatles’ 1967 Sgt Pepper album cover.

A whisky expert said: ‘This bottle has been estimated by Bonhams at up to £900,000 but that doesn’t mean it won’t fetch even more at auction. It’s not unreasonable to think it just might make break the £1million barrier.’