A Spotlight on The Macallan Fine and Rare Collection

It may be hard to imagine, but for much of the 20th century, The Macallan was primarily a constituent malt in blends. Today, there are few brands as iconic and coveted as The Macallan, with multiple record-breaking bottles to their name. In 2002, The Macallan debuted The Fine & Rare Collection, a string of vintage-dated whiskies to represent the legacy of the distillery. Spanning eight decades, the Collection captured the spirit of the Twentieth Century.

Today, the Fine & Rare Collection is the largest assembly of vintage single malt whiskies ever released from a single distillery, featuring 57 old and rare whiskies. Dating from 1926 to 1993, the historic collection is a journey through time, offering a window into The Macallan and their commitment to craftsmanship throughout the decades. Over the years, the Fine & Rare Collection has underpinned The Macallan as the one of the world’s most valuable and collectible single malt whiskies, with their iconic labels becoming the cornerstones of the most enviable whisky collections around the world. 

Each vintage in the series is personally selected by The Macallan’s master distillers and whisky makers. Following years of nurturing and close surveillance, each cask was identified to be at the peak of their maturation complexity before bottling in limited quantities. Each bottle from the Fine & Rare Collection is hand bottled at Easter Elchies, at cask-strength without the use of chill-filtration or the addition of caramel. The pleasing range of hues across the collection comes naturally from cask ageing. 

The Macallan 1926 Fine And Rare - The World's Most Expensive Whisky. 

The introduction of the Collection was spearheaded with The Macallan 1926 vintage at its helm, a now record-breaking bottle that reached a hammer price of £1,000,000 in The Perfect Collection by Mr. Richard Gooding, the highest hammer price for any single bottle of whisky achieved at an online auction.

The whisky was drawn from hallowed Cask #263, which contained liquid distilled nearly a century ago in the height of America’s Prohibition. After 60 years in cask, just 40 bottles were produced in 1986 with a rather unique plan devised for their packaging, something as unique and noteworthy as the whisky itself. Of the forty bottles, twenty-four were commissioned for bespoke label designs by esteemed artists Sir Peter Blake and Valerio Adami (twelve apiece) and two were sold unlabelled at auction. Therefore, no more than 14 exist with the Fine and Rare label, and this bottle can be considered the most coveted bottle of whisky in existence and the pinnacle in rare whisky collecting.

The Fine & Rare Collection has established itself as one of the most admired and legendary of malt whisky series', discover more in Whisky Auctioneer's Ultimate Guide To The Macallan Fine & Rare Collection, detailing every vintage from 1926 to 1991. This guide also includes the original retail price for each vintage from the distillery.