‘World’s oldest whisky’ with £200k price tag up for auction at Sotheby’s

Whisky connoisseurs with cavernously deep pockets, take note: the “oldest whisky in the world” is up for sale in London.

The Macallan The Reach 81 Years Old, distilled in 1940, is expected to fetch between £110,000 and £200,000 through an auction at Sotheby’s.

Three bids have already been placed, with the price currently sat at £110,000 for the rare whisky.

The listing certainly has the credentials to get single malt enthusiasts excited: crafted in a single, sherry-seasoned oak cask, and encased in a display cabinet made from the wood of an elm tree thought to have fallen on the Macallan Estate in 1940, the whisky is one of only 288 bottles ever released to market.

It is encased in a mouth-blown decanter and cradled by a bronze sculpture of three hands, representing the distillery workers of 1940, the former Macallan chairman Allan Shiach, and today’s master whisky maker, Kirsteen Campbell, who selected the 1940 cask used to create The Reach.

The winning bidder will get more than just the whisky for their money, too, with their own small bronze sculpture, a distillery experience at the Macallan, and a tasting of the 81-year-old whisky also thrown in.

And with such a humongous price tag, what does the whisky actually taste like? According to the whisky maker, anyone brave enough to open the bottle and try the 41.6% ABV single malt will be met on the nose with “dark chocolate, sweet cinnamon, aromatic peat, plums, leather, pink grapefruit, redcurrant jelly and a rich resinous note”.

On the palate, there will be “treacle toffee, bramble jam, liquorice, crystalised ginger, nutmeg, charred pineapple, pecans and woodsmoke”, while the finish will be “intensely rich, sweet and smoky”.

Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s head of whisky and spirits, North America and EMEA, said: “Age, rarity and provenance combine to spectacular effect in this, one version of the oldest single malt whisky ever to be released by The Macallan.

“This is Sotheby’s third auction partnership with The Macallan in three years, and it is always a special event when we collaborate to launch a unique and exclusive bottle. It is particularly special when that bottle happens to contain the oldest whisky in the world.”

Proceeds from the auction will support the Macallan Artisan Apprenticeship Fund, which will allow businesses to recruit new apprentices and train existing ones, helping to “perpetuate key generational skills and crafts”.

The auction will close at 2.01pm BST on October 5. Visit the Sotheby’s website for more information.