A rare cask of whisky that was left in the Macallan distillery’s warehouse after being bought ‘on a whim’ in 1988 for £5,000 was sold at auction for a hammer price of £915,000 on Sunday (24 April). Auctioned by Whisky Hammer, it becomes the most expensive cask of whisky ever sold at auction. The bidding had reached £475k by Friday afternoon, surpassing the record £436k price achieved in 2019, also for a Macallan, the Sherry Hogshead Cask.
The 374-litre cask, originally filled on May 5, 1988, has been held in bond at the Macallan Distillery after the buyer forgot to pick it up, leaving it to mature for almost another 34 years until Macallan reminded him about it.
The cask holds 534 bottles, and the price of almost £1m, means that the cask has broken another world record – of being the most expensive per bottle cask ever sold at auction. That record was also held by the Macallan’s Sherry Hogshead Cask which held 261 bottles and selling for £436k.