This is, without a doubt, a golden age for scotch lovers, with more distilleries producing finer malts than ever before. The Macallan is surely high up on that list, decorated and favored as it is among critics and consumers alike. But with that level of excellence comes soaring prices, as this latest world record reflects.

At Sotheby’s auction in New York, a rare bottle of 64-year-old Macallan single malt in an intricate Cire Perdue crystal decanter made by Lalique sold for a whopping $460,000. But lest you chalk the nearly half-million-dollar sale price to gluttony run amok, first consider that the auction was for a charitable cause. 100% of the proceeds benefit charity:water, a foundation that brings drinking water to parts of the world that are without. The record sale brought Macallan and Lalique one huge step closer to its aim of raising $600,000 for the cause.
Part of the same Edrington Group that produces Highland Park, The Macallan is one of the top-selling whisky distilleries in Scotland, regularly ranking alongside Glenfiddich and Glenlivet at the top of the charts of single malt whiskies.

The auction, as it happened, actually took place back in November 2010. So what’s the news, you ask? The Guinness Book of World Records just recently certified the auction as the highest price ever paid for a bottle of whisky, far surpassing other bottles of whisky at auction and Macallan’s own record of $54,000 paid for a bottle of 1926 vintage scotch in 2007. We can’t imagine what would have taken the record authorities a year and a half to make the pronouncement, but we can only imagine they might have been busy downing pints of their own namesake stout – or better yet, a bottle of Macallan single malt scotch whisky. Just as long as it didn’t set them back a half million.

For more information visit Lalique.com or TheMacallan.com.