End Date : Jan 07 2026 08:10 PM
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Macallan 1946 - 1998. 52 Year Old. Select Reserve. Matured in Sherry Casks. 700ml. 40%. In wooden presentation box with original outer box and certificate of authenticity.
A hugely important bottling from the late 1990s, Macallan 1946 is a very rare example of smoky Macallan. After the end of WWII a shortage of coal forced the distillery to revert to using peat to dry the barley, resulting in a thread of smoky flavour in the whisky. This elegantly presented bottle is a stellar performer at whisky auctions, thanks to its great age and peat-assisted depth and complexity.
One of the most sought-after whiskies from this distillery, the amazing Macallan 1946 52-Year-Old is a whisky of jaw-dropping majesty and complexity with an unusually potent thread of smoky flavour running through it. This was a highpoint in Macallan’s history on release in 1999 and its reputation has only grown in the intervening years.
The grandest of Speyside’s blue chip distilleries, Macallan was founded in 1824 and carved a reputation for luxury single malt whisky in the 1980s with string of 18-year-old and 25-year-old sherry-matured vintage single malts distilled in the 1960s and 1970s, building on the renown of earlier highly-regarded licensed bottlings by Gordon & MacPhail and Campbell, Hope and King.
In the early 2000s, as the supply and quality of even the best sherry casks declined dramatically, Macallan introduced their Fine Oak series, an initially controversial range of bottlings that included bourbon-matured spirit in the cask recipe. While the Fine Oak series took some time to find its audience, Macallan’s status as the top Speyside distillery - particularly at auction - was already well-established and today a legion of eager Macallan fans ensure that each new luxury bottling from the distillery sells out immediately on release.
Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.
This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.
| BID | DATE | TIME | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £12,500.00 | 7th January 2026 | 07:50 PM | |
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