There are good whiskies, great whiskies, and premium whiskies, and then there is the ultra-premium, luxurious whiskies that sell for eye-watering amounts. If you’ve been diligently saving your pennies so that you can treat yourself to a bottle of fancy and expensive whisky (or whiskey), you may want to make sure you’re sitting down before reading our list of the most expensive whiskey in the world.
High-priced, luxury whiskies are usually well-aged—often 25-plus years old—and well-presented: elegant crystal decanters made by famous crystal houses like Lalique and Baccarat are packaged in elaborate, handmade wooden boxes, often accompanied by exclusive trinkets.
So, grab your piggy bank and a hammer, and at the end of our roundup of the world’s most expensive whiskeys and whiskies, you can break on in to see which one of the extravagant prices best suits your budget.
- Whisky vs. Whiskey
- The Most Expensive Whiskey In The World
- Isabella's Islay
- The Macallan Fine & Rare 1926 60-Year-Old
- The Emerald Isle Collection
- Karuizawa 1960 50-Year-Old
- Yamazaki 55 Year Old
- The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-Year-Old
- The Macallan Peter Blake 1926 60-Year-Old
- The Macallan Michael Dillon 1926
- Hanyu Ichiro's Full Card Series
- The Macallan Lalique Legacy Collection
- The Macallan Red Collection
- The Macallan M
Whisky vs. Whiskey
Before we dive into the list of the most expensive bottles, let’s clear up any confusion regarding the spelling. You will see the name of this illustrious spirit spelled in one of two different ways: whisky or whiskey.
The difference is essentially a regional difference, with those produced in Scotland, Japan, and Canada opting to leave out the ‘e’ and those hailing from the US or Ireland including the ‘e.’ So, you can have a Scotch whisky or an Irish whiskey, and if you’re really thirsty, you can have Japanese whiskies or American whiskeys.
The Most Expensive Whiskey In The World
So if you’re sitting comfortably and have your piggy bank and hammer, and maybe some smelling salts, on hand, we’ll run through some of the twelve most expensive bottles of whisky ever sold:
Isabella’s Islay
Price: $6.2 million
The most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold hails from the Isle of Islay to the west of Glasgow in Scotland. In 2018, a bottle of Isabella’s Islay was sold at a private auction held by Bonhams in Hong Kong, with the final bid of $6.2 million coming from an anonymous collector.
The whisky itself is an aged single malt, yet the reason for the huge price tag is largely due to the bottle. The whisky is presented in an English crystal decanter bejeweled with more than 8,500 diamonds and with 300 rubies spelling out the name.
Order a couple of bottles here.
The Macallan Fine & Rare 1926 60-Year-Old
Price: $2.15 million
The Macallan distillery is a famed single malt Scotch whisky distillery in Craigellachie, Scotland, located at the confluence of the River Spey and the River Fiddich (whose valley or glen gives its name to the famous Scotch whisky brand Glenfiddich). Its Fine and Rare 1926 Whisky is a single malt Scotch whisky that was distilled in 1926 and bottled in 1986.
In 2014, a bottle of Macallan Fine & Rare 1926 60-Year-Old was sold at auction for $2.15 million, which at the time was a world record.
The Emerald Isle Collection
Price: $2 million
The Emerald Isle Collection is a limited edition whiskey set released in 2021 that was created by The Craft Irish Whiskey Company in collaboration with Fabergé. The set includes two bottles of fine single malt Irish whiskey, an exclusive Celtic egg by Fabergé, a bespoke Fabergé Altruist timepiece, two ultra-rare Cohiba Siglo VI Gran Reserva cigars, and is presented in a beautifully hand-crafted walnut wood case.
The expensive whiskey is produced from triple-distilled Irish barley and is aged for at least 25 years in American oak casks before being finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks for an additional five years. The result is a smooth, complex whiskey with notes of vanilla, oak, and dried fruit.
Karuizawa 1960 50-Year-Old
Price: $2 million
Distilled in 1960 and bottled in 2010, this 50-year-old Japanese single malt whisky joined the ranks of the most expensive whiskies in the world in 2016, when a bottle of Karuizawa 1960 50-Year-Old was sold at auction for $2 million, setting a new world record for the priciest bottle of Japanese whisky ever sold.
The whisky is made from 100% malted barley and is aged for 50 years in Japanese oak casks, which imparts a deep amber color and a complex flavor profile that includes notes of honey, chocolate, and spice. The Karuizawa distillery, which was founded in 1955, closed in 2000, making Karuizawa whiskies even more scarce and valuable.
Yamazaki 55 Year Old
Price: $1.8 million
Only 100 bottles of Yamazaki 55-Year Old were produced, which has contributed to its eye-watering price tag. The whisky was distilled in 1960, making it one of the oldest whiskies in the world, before being aged for 55 years in a combination of Japanese and American oak casks, giving it a unique flavor profile.
This smooth and flavorful Yamazaki single malt whisky was bottled at 43% ABV, and with a limited number of bottles in existence, it will likely sell for an even higher price the next time one goes up for auction.
Check out their more affordable options here.
The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-Year-Old
Price: $1.7 million
In 2018, a bottle of Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-Year-Old was sold at auction for $1.7 million, which made it the world’s most expensive whisky at the time. The 60-year-old single malt is highly sought-after by collectors and connoisseurs alike and comes in a bottle designed by acclaimed Italian artist Valerio Adami.
Before being bottled, Macallan aged the whisky for 60 years in Spanish oak sherry casks, which is said to have given the whisky a deep amber color and a complex flavor profile with notes of dried fruits, spices, and chocolate.
The Macallan Peter Blake 1926 60-Year-Old
Price: $1.6 million
Macallan teamed up with Sir Peter Blake, an English pop artist best known for his work on the iconic album cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album to design exclusive labels for their special and rare 60-year-old whisky. The single malt whisky is already extremely rare, and the Peter Blake-designed-labels release was limited to a mere twelve bottles, boosting the price a little further when it hit auction.
Bonhams’ whisky specialist Martin Green described the single malt as being ‘dark honey-gold in color, and almost inconceivably smooth with a luscious hint of dry-sweetness in the malt.’
The Macallan Michael Dillon 1926
Price: $1.5 million
Before this elusive bottle turned up for auction in 2018, the Macallan Distillery was not sure if it still existed. The bottle, part of the ‘The Macallan Fine and Rare’ collection, features a hand-painted design by Irish artist Michael Dillon and, as only one bottle exists, has been dubbed the Holy Grail of whisky.
Hanyu Ichiro’s Full Card Series
Price: $1.3 million
If you’ve become a little disillusioned with the prices so far, this entry on the list of expensive whiskies is a veritable bargain! The $1.3 million you prise out of your piggy bank will actually buy you 54 bottles of fine Japanese whisky – a little under $25,000 per bottle. The complete Hanyu Ichiro’s Full Card Series features 54 individual bottles, each representing a playing card in a deck, with two joker cards also included.
The set of whisky was released between 2005 and 2014, and it sold for US$1.53 million at Bonhams’s Fine & Rare Wine and Whisky auction in Hong Kong in 2020, with its high price helped by the fact the Hanyu Distillery is no longer in operation.
The Macallan Lalique Legacy Collection
Price: $993,000
The Macallan Lalique Legacy Collection is a limited-edition single malt Scotch whisky that was released in 2020. It represents a high-end collaboration between The Macallan and the French crystal company and jeweler Lalique.
The Macallan Lalique Legacy Collection comes in a set of six stunning crystal decanters (called the Six Pillars Collection) filled with some of the rarest of The Macallan’s single malts. The collection includes Macallan’s single malts aged between 50 and 65 years old, with the bottles housed in a bespoke natural ebony cabinet that also holds six bottles and six pairs of Lalique Macallan glasses. When it went under the hammer in April 2017 at Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong, it sold for US$993,000.
The Macallan Red Collection
Price: $975,000
The 78-year-old single malt whisky featured in the Macallan Red Collection is the oldest aged whiskey ever to be released from the Macallan’s Speyside distillery. The Red Collection is available in limited numbers only, and each bottle contains different ages of whisky.
When a full set was auctioned off by a private collector, thanks to the rare whiskies and the exclusive labels illustrated by Spanish artist Javi Anarez, it fetched $975,000.
The Macallan M
Price: $628,000
Macallan M is housed in a decanter made from handcrafted crystal. The Macallan M single malt has been aged in Spanish sherry casks for at least 25 years, and only 400 bottles were produced. The expensive whisky has a complex flavor profile, with notes of honey, vanilla, fruit, and spice, and is bottled at 48.6% ABV.
Key Takeaways
- You’re gonna need a bigger piggy bank!
- While these whiskies are well out of most people’s price ranges, many of the distilleries still produce some superb whiskies at more reasonable prices.
- You can also find many highly-acclaimed award-winning whiskies for under $100.
- Regardless of the prices, make sure you drink responsibly.
