A bottle of Macallan whisky just sold for a record HK$7.96m

[HONG KONG] A rare bottle of 60-year-old Macallan whisky sold for HK$7.96 million (S$1.36 million) at Bonhams Hong Kong on Friday, smashing the record for the most expensive bottle ever sold at auction.

The bottle sold for more than twice the high estimate of HK$4.5 million. Estimates exclude the 22.5 per cent buyers' premium added to the hammer price.

That works out to about US$13,466 per centiliter for the standard 75-centiliter bottle, one of only 12 ever made when the limited edition was released in 1986 after aging for 60 years in a cask by the Scottish distillery.

Prices for whiskies have soared globally in recent years as more and more buyers seek out rare bottles from Scotland, including Dalmore and Port Ellen, as well as Japanese distilleries Karuizawa and Yamazaki. Daniel Lam, head of wine and whisky at auctioneer Bonhams in Hong Kong, said whisky has outperformed even the most coveted French wine from Burgundy, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, which has appreciated about 30 per cent in the past 12 months. Macallans 18 years and older have doubled over the same period, he said.

The previous auction record of HK$4.9 million was set in 2014 in Hong Kong for a six-liter bottle of Macallan 60 year old. That's eight times bigger than the bottle sold Friday.

BLOOMBERG