A 64 year old bottle of Macallan whisky has sold at a New York charity auction for $460,000 – making it the most expensive whisky ever bought in the world.

This rare single malt whisky was contained in a bespoke Lalique crystal decanter and auctioned to mark the birth of Rene Lalique, the founder of the world’s leading crystal artisans. The decanter was designed and hand-crafted by Lalique and was inspired by the beauty of the Macallan’s 150 hectare estate in North-Eastern Scotland. The design is not dissimilar to a traditional ship’s decanter from the 1820s – the decade in which Macallan was founded.

The whisky itself is the oldest that Macallan has ever bottled at its distillery, and this one-of-a-kind Lalique decanter holds around 1.5 litres of it. This rare spirit has been stored in Spanish sherry casks since World War II and has been left to age for 6 decades to create its smoky flavour and mature taste. It also has an alcohol level of 42.5% – just above the cut-off level for scotch classification.

This exclusive whisky was initially unveiled to the public on 6^th April in Paris and then taken on a 12 city “tour de monde” where samples were auctioned off for charity at each city it passed through. The tour raised around $145,000 in addition to the auction prices and the whisky eventually reached its final destination at the Sotheby’s auction in New York, where the final decanter far exceeded it’s expected $150,000 price tag and sold on 15^th November for a record-breaking $460,000.

The money raised from this auction was donated to charity: Water – an organisation that is dedicated to providing clean, safe drinking water to developing countries.

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