1940 Macallan whisky sells for thousands

A bottle of Macallan whisky sold for a hammer of £12,000 in a recent Fine Wine and Whisky sale at North Yorkshire auction house Tennants.

The exceptional and highly prized Macallan 1940 50 Year Old Single Speyside Malt Scotch Whisky is one of the most collectable of whiskies, which has dramatically increased in value over the last twenty years. It was consigned at Tennants’ Harrogate Office, during one of their regular fine wine and whisky valuation days. The vendor had been given it by a colleague a number a years ago and hadn’t realised how much it had appreciated in value.

The bottle contains whisky distilled on January 1, 1940 and laid down by Macallan for thirty years, before the cask was bought by independent bottlers Gordon and Macphail. They moved the cask to their warehouses in Elgin where it remained maturing for another 20 years before being bottled. It formed part of Gordon and Macphail’s Speymalt range and is sold with its original presentation case and certificate. Macallan still continues to dominate the whisky market at auction, and a further lot of four bottles from the Macallan ‘Decades’ Collection sold for £1,600.

Strong prices were also seen for fine bottles of vintage wine, with notable results achieved for a two bottles of Château Du Pin, 1993 ‘Le Pin’ Pomerol, sold for £2,200; and a bottle of Grand Vin De Château Latour 1961 Pauillac-Médoc, which sold for £2,200. Beating pre-sale expectations were six bottles of Château Gruaud Larose 1961 Saint Julien, which sold for £850 against an estimate of £200-400; two bottles of Paul Jaboulet 1978 Hermitage ‘la Chapelle’, selling for £850 against an estimate of £100-150; and a mixed lot of bottles from leading producers from the 1940s and 1950s including Château Margaux 1953 Margaux and Château Lafite Rothschild 1953 Pauillacm, which sold for £700.

Good results, too, were seen for bottles of Krug Clos Du Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Brut Champage, produced by Chardonnay grapes from the most famous vineyard in the Champagne region. A three-bottle celebration case released in 1998 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Clos du Mesnil sold for £5,000, and a further single bottle sold for £1,600.