The most valuable bottle of wine or spirit ever sold at auction is a Macallan. Forty years after that whisky came out of its cask, The Macallan has bottled a cask filled the very same year, handed the labels back to the three artists who made the original famous, and priced the result at a level that puts it firmly out of reach of almost everyone reading this.
The Macallan Romantica Collection is a 1986 vintage single malt drawn from one sherry seasoned European oak cask, no. 9925, released in 2026 to mark 100 years since The Macallan 1926 was first laid down. It is bottled at 48.6% ABV in natural colour after nearly forty years of maturation. Only 258 bottles exist, split across three artist editions of 86 bottles each, and they are sold not individually but as a complete three-bottle set. The whisky goes on sale direct from The Macallan from 30 July 2026, at a reported 105,000 US dollars per set.
The specs, up front
Distillery: The Macallan, Speyside, Scotland
Vintage / bottled: Distilled 1986, bottled 2026 (roughly 39 years and four months in wood)
Cask: Single sherry seasoned European oak cask no. 9925, from Jerez de la Frontera
ABV: 48.6%, natural colour
Outturn: 258 bottles in total, three artist editions of 86 bottles each
Format: Sold only as a complete three-bottle set (86 sets worldwide)
Price: Reported at around 105,000 US dollars per set
On sale: Direct from The Macallan from 30 July 2026
Why the 1926 connection matters
The reference point here is not marketing shorthand. The Macallan 1926 was distilled a century ago, laid down by custodian Janet “Nettie” Harbinson, and bottled 60 years later in 1986 under her great nephew Allan Shiach. It yielded just 40 bottles. One of them, carrying a Valerio Adami label, sold at Sotheby’s in London for 2.18 million pounds in 2023, the current record for any bottle of wine or spirit at auction.
Romantica ties itself to that story through a single detail of timing. Cask no. 9925 was filled in 1986, the same year the 1926 was finally emptied from Cask #263 and bottled. One chapter closed, another began in a quiet corner of the estate. That is the whole pitch: not a recreation of the 1926, which would be impossible, but the cask that started its life in the same breath.
The Macallan is not shy about the ambition. This is being positioned, quite openly, as the spiritual successor to the most collected bottle in Scotch. Whether the market agrees is a separate question, and one worth keeping honest about later.
The three artists, reunited
The original 1926 labels were the work of three artists: pop art pioneer Sir Peter Blake, Italian painter Valerio Adami, and mural artist Michael Dillon. All three have returned for Romantica, and each edition of 86 bottles carries one of their new works.
Blake’s contribution, “The Music Room”, is a collage imagining a celebratory crowd outside Easter Elchies House in 1986, the year the Octagon Room opened, the 1926 was bottled, and the Romantica spirit was distilled. Adami’s “Romantica” reworks a 1986 sketch of a lady beneath the moon and stars, the figure representing Janet Harbinson, her red dress nodding both to Adami’s palette and to the sherry casks from Jerez. Dillon’s “The Macallan Estate” is a landscape of Easter Elchies, with the modern distillery half hidden beneath its grass covered roof.
Blake and Adami are both now in their nineties. Dillon, at 68, is the youngest of the three. The word “Romantica” itself comes from the title Adami gave his piece on the certificate of authenticity, and it doubles as a nod to the Spanish origin of the cask.
What the whisky actually is
The character is where this gets interesting for drinkers rather than collectors. Lead whisky maker Euan Kennedy has said the team knew it had to be a 1986 cask to tell the story, and that there was only one candidate. The reason is a trace of peat.
The Macallan stopped using peat in production in 1988, so a whisky distilled in 1986 can carry a faint smoky signature that the distillery has not been able to produce since. That subtle woodsmoke, sitting under four decades of sherry cask fruit, is what places Romantica in another era. It is not a peated Macallan in any modern sense, but the whisper is there, and it is deliberate.
The tasting notes below are The Macallan’s own. We have not tasted this whisky, and given the outturn and the price, it is fair to say almost no one will.
The Macallan Romantica Collection tasting notes (distillery)
Nose: Apricot conserve, canned peaches, bittersweet toffee, crystallised ginger, cinnamon, antique oak, integrated woodsmoke
Palate: Velvety brown sugar, glazed peach, tropical lychee, dark cherries, treacle, a subtle hint of peat
Finish: Lingering dried fruit, leather, rich cacao
ABV: 48.6% | Cask: Single sherry seasoned European oak, no. 9925 | Price: approx. 105,000 USD per three-bottle set
The packaging and what you actually get
Each bottle sits in a bespoke European oak presentation box decorated with the relevant artist’s work. Inside is a numbered certificate signed by master whisky maker Kirsteen Campbell, a removable collection booklet, and a limited-edition giclée art print of the artwork. The three editions are only available together, which is why the outturn of 258 bottles really means 86 complete sets.
Is it worth it?
For a whisky at this level, “worth it” is not a tasting question, it is a collecting one, and it is worth being clear-eyed about. Jonny Fowle, the Sotheby’s specialist who handled the record 1926 sale, has called Romantica exceptional, and the rarity is real: 86 sets worldwide, a single cask, an unrepeatable peat signature. But the 1926 became priceless through decades of organic scarcity and auction mythology, not through being launched as a successor. Romantica arrives already knowing what it wants to be, and that is a harder thing to manufacture.
So who is this for? Serious Macallan collectors and private clients who want a single-cask piece with a genuine thread back to the 1926, and who value the complete three-artist set as an object. It is not for drinkers, and The Macallan has not pretended otherwise. For everyone else, this is one to read about, admire, and file alongside the 1926 as a marker of where the top of the market sits in 2026.
If you want to see the full collection and the artwork in detail, The Macallan’s own Romantica Collection page and the accompanying story on the three artists are the primary sources.
Frequently asked questions
What is The Macallan Romantica Collection? It is a 1986 vintage single cask single malt from The Macallan, released in 2026 to mark 100 years since The Macallan 1926 was laid down. Drawn from sherry seasoned European oak cask no. 9925 and bottled at 48.6% ABV, it runs to 258 bottles across three artist editions.
How much does The Macallan Romantica Collection cost? It has been reported at around 105,000 US dollars per set. It is sold only as a complete three-bottle set rather than as single bottles, so the price covers all three artist editions together. The Macallan did not publish a separate RRP for individual bottles on its own site.
How many bottles of the Romantica Collection are there? There are 258 bottles in total, split into three artist editions of 86 bottles each, designed by Sir Peter Blake, Valerio Adami and Michael Dillon. Because the collection sells only as a complete set, that works out at 86 three-bottle sets available worldwide.
What does The Macallan Romantica Collection taste like? According to The Macallan, the nose shows apricot conserve, canned peaches, toffee, ginger, cinnamon and woodsmoke. The palate brings brown sugar, glazed peach, lychee, dark cherries and a subtle hint of peat, with dried fruit, leather and cacao on the finish. The peat is a signature of pre-1988 Macallan.
Where can I buy The Macallan Romantica Collection? It is available direct from The Macallan from 30 July 2026, sold as a complete three-bottle set. Given only 86 sets exist worldwide and the price point, allocation is expected to go largely to The Macallan’s private clients rather than general retail.
Why is the Romantica Collection linked to The Macallan 1926? Cask no. 9925 was filled in 1986, the same year the legendary 1926 was emptied from its cask and bottled. The same three artists who created the 1926 labels returned for Romantica, making it a deliberate tribute to the bottle that became the most valuable wine or spirit ever sold at auction.
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