I recently found in my wine cellar a long-forgotten bottle of The Macallan 18 Year Old whisky, vintage 1967, bottled 1986. I bought this circa 1990 along with a dozen or so other Scotch single malts.
Two weeks ago, quite by accident, I noticed this same whisky (except bottled 1985) in the Hart Davis Hart catalog for their May wine auction… estimated price $1,300 to $1,900. Wow, I had no idea.
My question is, what makes this so valuable? Is there something unique and distinctive about the 1967 distillation? Does the whisky benefit from the extra quarter century in bottle? Would I notice a difference if I drank this alongside an 18 YO from a recent bottling? Or is it just collectible because it is old and rare, because most bottles of 1967 have been consumed?
TIA for any insight to help me understand what seems a crazy market value.
PS- The other “cellar survivor” from the same ~1990 purchase is a bottle of The Macallan 12 YO sherry wood aged, not vintage designated. As there is no vintage date nor bottling date listed, am I correct in assuming this would have only a nominal market value? Again, TIA.
The pre-1979 year of distillation Macallan 18 year olds are valuable because Macallan introduced the Gran Riserva 18 (first year was comprised of whisky distilled in 1979), which was made up of whisky from cherry picked casks, resulting in a weakening of the ‘regular’ vintage 18. Since, Macallan like many other distilleries underestimated demand for age statement whiskies, purchased inferior sherry casks, introduced the fine oak line because they had insufficient quality casks, sold the distillery (and in the runup to the sale, juiced the cash flow by bottling and selling the best whisky in the warehouse in order to attain a higher sales price), and on and on and on. The Macallan no longer makes (in the distillery or the warehouse) whisky of the quality they did prior to 1980.
The whisky sold as Macallan currently bears little resemblance to your pre-1999 bottled 18 year old. There wasn’t very much to begin with, there are fewer bottles now, and the collector demand has driven the price to the point where the whisky has become a collectible rather than a consumable. Everytime I open a great old bottle it is a bittersweet experience because it is irreplaceable.
The current bid for Macallan 1966 18 year old on whiskyauction.com is €1555 (no buyers or sellers vig).
End of rant.
Mark has it exactly right. I would only add, to your specific question about time in bottle, that the generally held wisdom is that whisky does not develop in bottle. In our experience, however (which in the case of my husband is pretty extensive) we have seen plenty of evidence to the contrary. The development is very slow, not nearly as profound as with wine, and people will argue that it may not even be development for the better. But it happens.
Mark and Sarah, thank you for the detailed info. I did not know any of that, so you can see I am rather inexperienced regarding beverages other than wine. I would have thought, for example, that Macallan remained a standard bearer for Speyside whisky. So which brand(s) would be highly regarded from Speyside? Is Cragganmore still right up there?