Here's a Scotch that you'd really like to sip and savor, if you could afford it: a rare 60-year-old Macallan whiskey that set the world's most expensive whiskey record at $ 1.1 million . auction Wednesday.

London auctioneer Bonham sold the bottle of Macallan Valerio Adami 1926, one of twelve bottles bottled in 1986, when selling whiskey in Edinburgh, Scotland. Bottle bidding was expected to be £ 700,000 to £ 900,000 ($ 911,000 to $ 1.17 million).

The winning bid, emanating from an unidentified private collector in Asia and having participated by telephone, topped the previous record set by Bonhams in May when another bottle of The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926's & # 39; Is sold at $ 1.06 million (£ 814,081).

"I am delighted with this exceptional result, and it is a great honor to have set a new world record, and particularly exciting to have it done here in Scotland, a whiskey country," said Martin Green, Whiskey Specialist. at Bonhams.

This bottle was purchased from the distiller for an undisclosed sum in 1994 and the seller, a "whiskey geek based in the UK", was in a taxi in Italy when the hammer fell and was "delighted". according to The Telegraph.

Macallan entrusted each of the design labels to Italian pop artist Adami and English pop artist Peter Blake for a limited edition of 24 bottles of whiskey, each representing 12 of these bottles.

Green described the Macallan, which had aged 60 years in sherry casks before being bottled in 1986, as "The Holy Grail of Whiskey" and "The Rolls Royce of Malt".

However, the buyer may never taste what's in this bottle. "We obviously do not know what will happen to that, but anyone who can spend about a million pounds sterling on a bottle of whiskey could afford to drink it," he told the New York Post. . "But it's an object of beauty in its own right – almost a museum piece."

On October 12, Sotheby's New York will auction this scotch whiskey bottle "The Macallan 1926", Sir Peter Blake, 60 years old. His estimate of $ 700,000 to $ 1.2 million is the highest ever recorded on a bottle of wine or whiskey at Sotheby's. (Photo courtesy of Sotheby's)

If you have a million in reserve, there is another chance to acquire one of the few bottles. On October 12, Sotheby's will be auctioned one of Blake's art-inspired bottles, which is perhaps the most famous for the Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". A price range of $ 700,000 to $ 1.2 million could set a new record.

Follow the USA TODAY reporter, Mike Snider, on Twitter: @ MikeSnider.

Read or share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/10/04/million-dollar-whisky-macallan-scotch-record-auction/1520918002/