The 13 Most Expensive Macallan Whiskies – So Far


The Macallan is one of the most expensive whisky brands in existence. Their whiskies have been known for breaking records when it comes to price both on a personal level (‘how much did you say the 15 year old was?’) and at auction. Here then, are the 13 most expensive Macallan whiskies – so far.

1. The Macallan 18 Years Old – $350

The 3 bottles of Macallan 18

It’s understandable that older, rarer and special editions of any whisky brand will be more expensive than expressions that make up the core range. However, when it comes to Macallan, even those whiskies are expensive. The following table shows the approximate prices of the main Macallan whiskies.

Core RangePrices
The Macallan Sherry Oak 18 Years Old$350
The Macallan Triple Cask Matured 18 Years Old$350
The Macallan Double Cask 18$346
The Macallan Rare Cask$330
The Macallan Estate$276
The Macallan Double Cask 15$145
The Macallan Triple Cask Matured 15 Years Old$136
The Macallan Sherry Oak 12 Years Old$81
The Macallan Double Cask 12$75
The Macallan Triple Cask Matured 12 Years Old$70
The Macallan Double Cask Gold$65

As you can see, the cheapest Macallan whisky is more expensive than the best whisky of many other brands and they quickly become even more expensive. A bottle of any of the 18 year old Macallan whiskies will cost you around $350!

2. The Macallan 50 Year Old – $129,149

A bottle of Macallan 50 Year Old

Obviously, the older a whisky is the more expensive it will be. 12 Year Old Macallan whiskies are around $80, 15 year Old Macallan whiskies are around $140, and as mentioned, 18 Year Old Macallan whiskies are around $350.

And while those jumps in price are quite steep, they’re nothing in comparison to the jumps in price for the even older Macallan whiskies. The 30 Year Old Macallan is about $8,000, the 40 Year Old Macallan is about $45,000 and the 50 year old Macallan is $129,149.

3. The Macallan 72 Years Old in Lalique – $125,299

The Macallan 72 Years Old in Lalique

This is one of the oldest Macallan whiskies in existence and it comes in a Lalique decanter – Macallan often work closely with revered French glassmaker and jeweler Lalique to make decanters for their whisky. 72 year old whisky in a special crystal decanter is bound to be expensive and when the whisky is Macallan that means $125,299 expensive.

Interestingly, the 72 Year Old Macallan is (slightly) cheaper than the 50 Year Old Macallan. This might be because the 72 Year Old is a relatively new offering. If so, we might soon see its price increase dramatically.

4. The Macallan 64 Year Old in Lalique – $464,000

The Macallan 64 Year Old in Lalique

The 64 year old whisky in this unique Lalique decanter comes from three sherry seasoned Spanish oak casks from 1942, 1945 and 1946, and although it’s a one of a kind, there’s 1.5 liters of it.

It fetched a staggering $464,000 at auction, which is a huge amount of money even for a Macallan. And even though the rest of the prices on this list are even higher, it’s actually the second most expensive Macallan of all because it doesn’t come with any added value.

The money was donated to charity to help developing nations have access to clean water.

5. Macallan M Imperiale Lalique Decanter – $628,000

Macallan M Imperiale Lalique Decanter

The Macallan M Collection celebrates the six pillars Macallan use to create their whiskies. The whiskies that make up the collection are usually priced at around $6,000 – $8,500.

The Macallan M Imperiale Lalique Decanter is 25 – 75 year old Macallan M whisky in an Imperiale six liter decanter from Lalique that takes 17 craftsmen 50 hours to make.

There are only four of these whiskies. Macallan kept two of them, one was committed to a private collector and the fourth was bought at auction for $628,000.

And if you think that’s not too expensive because after all it’s a six-liter decanter, which is the same amount as eight 750ml bottles, that still makes it $78,500 a bottle – which keeps it firmly in the very expensive whisky category.

6. Macallan Red Collection Javi Aznarez – $975,756

The Macallan Red Collection Javi Aznarez

The Macallan Red Collection is a limited edition set of six highly aged Macallan whiskies, including two of the oldest whiskies ever released by the distillery – one 74 years old and one 78 years old. The limited edition set usually costs around $126,000 and the six bottles can even be bought individually for between (depending on the bottle) $15,000 and $78,000.

The Macallan Red Collection Javi Aznarez Labels is even rarer as it’s one of two Red Collection sets that has exclusive labels, illustrated and signed by Spanish artist Javi Anarez. One remains in the Macallan archives and the other was sold at auction for $975,756.

7. Macallan in Lalique Legacy Collection – $993,000

The Macallan in Lalique Legacy Collection

The Macallan in Lalique Legacy Collection is a set of six Lalique crystal decanters, containing some of the rarest Macallan whiskies aged 50 to 65 years old. Each of the six limited-edition decanters had originally been single releases with the cheapest being $115,830 and the most expensive $262,834.

When the whole collection was sold at auction – housed in a bespoke natural ebony cabinet that also contains six miniatures and six pairs of Lalique Macallan glasses, it fetched $993,000.

8. Macallan 1926 60 Year Peter Blake Label – $1.04m

The Macallan 1926 60 Year Peter Blake Label

In 1986, 40 bottles of 60 year old Macallan were released. They were all very expensive – in the 10s of thousands of dollars, but some were given special labels which make them even more expensive. 12 of these bottles have a label designed by famous pop artist Sir Peter Blake, which increased their value dramatically as one of these bottles was sold at auction for $1.04 million.

9. Macallan 1926 60 Year Valerio Adami – $1.07m

The Macallan 1926 60 Year Valerio Adami

Another 12 of the 40 bottles of 1926 60 year old Macallan, had their label designed by Italian painter Valerio Adami. This also increased their value dramatically as one of these bottles was sold at auction for $1.02 million – and another for $1.07 million.

10. Macallan 1926 60 Year Michael Dillon – $1.53m

The Macallan 1926 60 Year Michael Dillon

One of the 40 bottles of 1926 60 year old Macallan was given to Irish artist Michael Dillon, who hand-painted the bottle design, which depicts the Easter Elchies House on the Macallan’s Speyside estate, in beautiful detail.

It’s obviously a one of a kind, and when it sold for $1.53 million (or £1.2 million) at Christie’s auction house in London, it became the first whisky to sell for more than £1 million.  

11. Macallan 1926 60 Year Fine & Rare – $1.9m

A bottle of Macallan 1926 60 Year Fine & Rare

The rest of the 40 bottles of 1926 60 year old Macallan were made part of the Macallan Fine and Rare Collection – a series of 57 vintage single-malt whiskies produced by the distillery over eight decades, and became the oldest whiskies in the collection.

One of the Macallan 1926 60 Year Old Fine & Rare Collection whiskies was sold at auction for $1.9 million, making it the most expensive Macallan of all – so far.

12. The Intrepid: Macallan 1989 32 Year – $1.4m

The Macallan Intrepid 1989 32 Year

The Intrepid is a massive 86-gallon bottle of 32 Year Old Macallan whisky. At 5’11”, the bottle is nearly six feet tall and more than twice the width of the average man. It contains the equivalent of 444 standard sized bottles, so the price of $1.4 million makes it just over $3,000 a bottle.

13. Cask of Macallan 1991 – $2.33m

Close up of whiskey cask

A rare cask of Macallan 1991 was recently sold at auction for $2.33 million. The cask is believed to contain about 600 bottles of over 30 year old, 51.1% ABV whisky – making the price of each bottle about $3,800.

More importantly, since it’s a cask and not a bottle or a decanter, it will lose approximately 2% of its volume each year due to evaporation. This will make its contents increasingly rare and therefore, increasingly more valuable. Most estimates for a return on investment are between 5% – 8% a year.

Josh Mitchell

I'm Josh Mitchell. I love whiskey and am working on increasing my whiskey tasting abilities and my collection.

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