Salva Mubarak Senior Features Writer

One of the most well-known whiskey makers in the world, The Macallan is never far from making news with its history-making bottles of Scotch. After presenting the world’s first horizontal bottle of whiskey and creating the world’s largest bottle of whiskey for a good cause, they’ve now auctioned off the world’s oldest whiskey, The Macallan The Reach 81 Years Old.

The single malt whiskey by Macallan was sold at Sotheby’s London for three times its estimated price, at $340,000. The 81-year-old whiskey was bought by a private collector from the United Kingdom who would now be able to visit The Macallan Estate for a unique tasting experience. The proceeds from the sale would go towards The Macallan Artisan Apprenticeship Fund.

The whiskey comes from a single sherry-seasoned oak cask originally laid down during World War II. It was sold in a mouth-blown glass decanter placed in a bronze sculpture of three hands. The bottle and sculpture were then placed in a miniature wooden cabinet that was made from an elm tree believed to have been on the Macallan Estate during the year the Scotch was distilled in the early 1940s.

Sotheby’s head of whiskey and spirits for North America and the EMEA region Jonny Fowle said in a statement, “This extraordinary result for the oldest whisky ever to come to auction is thoroughly deserved. One-of-one versions of special Single Malts are highly coveted, and we saw competitive bids playing out as the sale began to close, pushing the final price ever higher, to nearly three times over estimate. Age, rarity and provenance—once again, the holy trinity for collectors.”