These Whiskies Are Worth Much More Than Your Car, And Almost As Much As Your House
By Richard Thomas
(Credit: Edrington)
It’s been four years since our first Top Ten of the world’s most expensive whiskies, but the market has not stood still in that time. Quite the contrary, each year since has been marked by a few record-breaking auctions, pointing at the rising value of the popular, rare and ultra-aged in Scotch whisky and world whisky generally.
In August 2016, the most expensive whisky in the world according to wine-searcher.com’s retail averages was The Macallan Lalique 50 Year Old, which commanded an average listed retail price of $69,298. Today that price tag would only command eighth place! Rising prices are not the only change, as The Macallan’s grip on the top of the list has expanded and solidified. If this list were constructed as a straight Top Ten again, The Macallan would hold the first eight slots and dominate it.
So, instead of doing a traditional Top Ten, we’ll start by first addressing that cluster of The Macallan single malts commanding over $100,000 a bottle.
The Macallan $100,000 Club
The Macallan Lalique 55 Year Old Single Malt, $168,780 (2016 price: $43,987)
The Macallan Lalique 62 Year Old Single Malt, $140,000 (2016 price: $39,272)
The Macallan Lalique 60 Year Old Single Malt, $136,797 (2016 price: $37,304)
The Macallan Lalique 72 Year Old Single Malt, $124,072
The Macallan 50 Year Old Single Malt, $100,013 (2016 price: $37, 587)
The first thing to observe is four of these whiskies are from The Macallan’s Lalique series, in which said release was bottled in a custom designed decanter from Lalique. These Laliques are all recent creations, bottled during the last decade. Indeed, the 72 Year Old Lalique–the oldest whisky The Macallan has ever released–came after the posting of our 2016 list, hitting the market in 2018. The fifth entry is the 50 year old anniversary edition, released in 1983, when it had an official retail price of just £50 (£170 adjusted for inflation)! Finally, all of these whiskies have commanded still higher prices at auction; the prices listed above reflect retail averages.
Below this cluster of $100K whiskies:
The Macallan Lalique 65 Year Old Single Malt, $98,410
The Macallan 52 Year Old Single Malt, $98,288
The Macallan Millenium 50 Year Old Single Malt, $63,883 (2016: $30,160)
Hibiki 35 Year Old Japanese, $44, 286
(Credit: William Grant & Sons)
The Balvenie 50 Year Old, $42,448 (2016: $30,044)
The Macallan Fine & Rare Vintage, $39,764
The Glenfiddich Rare Collection 50 Year Old, $34, 583
Karuizawa Vintage Aqua of Life 45 Year Old Single Cask Malt, $32, 507
The Macallan 40 Year Old Single Malt, $31,237
The first thing to observe overall is how much that brand name “The Macallan” has mattered to rising prices at the top of the heap, especially if that name is “The Macallan in Lalique.” The four whiskies in the $100,000 club that were available in 2016 saw an average price increase of $96,860. Only one whisky from 2016 not named The Macallan kept a place at the top of the list, The Balvenie 50 Year Old, and it saw a price rise of just $12,404. Although that is an almost 50% increase in just four years, it is modest compared to the meteoric rise of the priciest Macallan malts.
Other observations to be made about the state of ultra-expensive whiskies is that Japanese entries have risen from just one in 2016 (The Yamazaki 35 Year Old for $28,927) to two, and both command higher prices than the former entry. No blended whiskies are to be found at the top at all anymore; the first blended Scotch enters the list in 17th place, the Chivas Regal Royal Salute 52 Year Old Single Cask. In 2016, no Islay whiskies made wine-searcher.com’s top 10 or even their top 25, but in 2020 three Bowmores managed to break into that top 25 near the bottom.