The Macallan distillery out of Scotland is often considered one of the high end offerings in whisky, despite the fact a recent report suggested some Scotch from this operation was not selling as well at auction as other distilleries. This isn’t the case with all of its single malts however, as recently a special six-liter version of its M expression earned the Guinness World Records record for most expensive whisky sold at auction.The Macallan M Imperiale 6-litre Lalique decanter, according to those behind The Macallan, sold at auction in Hong Kong for $628,000 in January 2014, breaking the previous record of $460,000 held by The Macallan Lalique Cire Perdue. It is actually one of four crystal decanters made for Macallan by Lalique, a French glass company, that each host this particular whisky expression.
The decanters are something of a work of art, with each requiring the work of 17 craftsmen and taking over 50 hours to complete. The Macallan provided some interesting insight into the world these special trinkets travel through – two of them were archived by the distillery and one went to a private collector in Asia.
As for the fourth one, named Constantine (it, like the other three, are named after Roman emperors), it was the one which garnered the world record after selling at the Finest and Rarest Wines and Whiskies auction at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong. All net sale proceeds were donated to local charities there.
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