The world’s largest bottle of whisky has sold for more than a £1 million.
The 32-year-old, 311 litre bottle of Macallan single malt, was bought at an auction earlier today.
Called The Intrepid, the vessel stands at an impressive 5ft 11 inches tall and holds enough liquid to fill 444 standard bottles.
An anonymous foreign buyer purchased the whisky at Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull for £1.1 million.
Parties from all over the globe were interested in the bottle but the final payment is worth the equivalent of almost £92 per dram.
Daniel Monk, of Fah Mai and Rosewin Holdings, came up with the concept and claimed it had ‘always been about more than money’.
‘This is a passion project to celebrate the life of my late father, Captain Stanley Monk, who was himself an explorer and achieved many amazing things during his life,’ he said.
‘Today would have been his birthday so it was a perfect date to put The Intrepid up for auction.’
The bottle’s name is in tribute to the drive and achievements of 11 of the world’s most pioneering explorers who are featured on the bottle, its makers say.
That include Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Jamie Ramsay and Karen Darke.
The project is also supporting the explorers’ chosen environmental, physical and mental well-being charities.
Marie Curie and the Campaign Against Living Miserably are among them.
Mr Monk continued: ‘The Intrepid project has been an adventure from the start.
‘I started contacting explorers during lockdown to get them on board and found people who could make and fill the largest bottle of Scotch whisky and together we have achieved the dream.’
The Intrepid was officially certified by Guinness World Records as the largest when it was bottled last year and, before the auction, there were hopes that it might sell for as much as £1.5 million and become the most expensive ever sold.
The Scotch was described by Charles MacLean, one of Scotland’s leading whisky experts and Master of the Quaich, as an ‘an elegant whisky, with subtle complexity’.
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After maturing in two sister casks in Macallan’s Speyside warehouse for 32 years, the alcohol was bottled last year by Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky, one of the leading independent whisky bottling companies.
A small number of 12-bottle sets were also produced, each filled with the remaining whisky from the same casks used to fill the record-breaking bottle.
The sets includes a replica of the main bottle design, along with individual versions dedicated to each of the explorers associated with the project, and these were also sold at auction.
Gavin Strang, managing director of Lyon & Turnbull, said: ‘It certainly isn’t every day you get to auction a bottle of high-quality, single malt, that also happens to be a record breaker.’
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