Macallan 1926 Fine & Rare 60 Year Old

Macallan distillery had been responsible for its own bottling for six years when the decision was made to remove this incredible 60 year old whisky from their warehouses in 1986, but they were already acutely aware of when reverential treatment was due to a certain product, and the ceremony with which to carry this out. So much so in fact, that cask #263 was deemed too good to be confined to a single presentation. Of the 40 bottles drawn, it was decided that twelve would be labelled by British pop artist, Sir Peter Blake, perhaps best known for providing the iconic cover art for The Beatles's Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club LP. A further twelve later had label art created for them by another pop artist, the Italian painter Valerio Adami after he was recommended to Macallan by their Italian agent, Armando Giovinetti.

Of the remaining bottles from cask #263, two were sold with no labels at all, one of which was subsequently hand-painted by Irish artist, Michael Dillon. The rest became the foundations for this, the most sought after entry to the Macallan Fine & Rare series.

The Fine & Rare Series of whiskies was launched in 2002, designed to represent the very best vintages and whisky that Macallan had to offer. The 1926 vintage was a slightly later inclusion however, with the distillery favouring offering the bottles to customers with the opportunity to create bespoke labels for them at the time. When the remaining stock was made part of the Fine & Rare range around 2004, there were only 12 bottles remaining.