Total Lots Sold:
65
View Lots
Do you have this bottle for sale?
SELL IT TODAYHAMMER PRICE OVER TIME
This graph displays data solely from Whisky-Online Auctions past sales history. Please note the filling level of the liquid and the condition of an item can affect the price negatively, so please check individual Lot sales below if there's a sudden dip in the graph.
HAVE ONE FOR SALE?
Submit your details along with an image and a description of your bottle. We'll then be in touch with the best way to proceed.
WHY SELL WITH WHISKY-ONLINE AUCTIONS?
0% Sellers Commission
Free Collections Available
Over 30 Years In The Whisky Industry
Over 1,700 Five Star Trustpilot Reviews
We Sell The Rarest Whiskies Ever Bottled
Global Buying Audience Including Far East Buyers
Bespoke Auction Platform
Thousands Of Active Bidders
Large Database Of Newsletter Subscribers
Over 36k Social Media Followers
Macallan 1979-1997 - 18 Year Old - Gran Reserva - Sherry Cask
Macallan 1979 - 1997. 18 Year Old. Gran Reserva. Matured in Sherry Casks. 700ml. 40%.
Bottled in 1997, this first edition of Macallan Gran Reserva was bottled from a batch of 1979 casks that were deemed to be too good for the standard edition 18-year-old and deserving of a luxury wooden box special edition - a slightly reprehensible marketing decision that was thoroughly vindicated by the ensuing hysterical demand.
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.