THE MACALLAN SET TO AUCTION 1962 BOTTLE FOR SKYFALL CHARITY
As the James Bond franchise celebrates 50 years, and SKYFALL becomes the highest-grossing Bond film ever, The Macallan has announced its intention to celebrate these achievements by donating a bottle of The Macallan 1962 from its Fine and Rare collection to be auctioned for charity.
The Macallan 1962 bottle will feature a unique signed label including signatures of Bond himself, Daniel Craig along with Javier Bardem and Bérénice Marlohe.
The auction is set to take place at Sotheby’s in London, as part of the company’s Finest & Rarest Wines sale on 17th April 2013. All proceeds from the auction of this lot will benefit the Government Communications Fund (GC Fund) that support former and serving members of GCHQ facing hardship and distress. At the request of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, this was one the charities that benefited from the SKYFALL world premiere held in October 2012.
1962 was the year of the first ever Bond film, Dr No, signalling the start of one of the world’s most recognised film franchises. It was also the year that The Macallan 1962 was distilled on Speyside, Scotland.
Ken Grier, Director of Malts, Edrington, owners of The Macallan, said “Following on from The Macallan’s appearance in SKYFALL, we are delighted to further our association with the Bond franchise with this charity auction. We are hopeful that the combination of the Bond link with the auction appeal of vintage Macallan will give us a great result. The Government Communications fund is a very fitting recipient of the monies raised.”
Today The Macallan is one of the world’s most collectable whiskies, sitting at the top of the auction table and the owner of the current Guinness World Record™ for the most expensive whisky ever sold at auction. “The Macallan is a First Growth Malt, the tops, with all that this means in terms of excellence and excitement” comments Serena Sutcliffe MW, Sotheby’s International Head of Wine.
Notes
About The Macallan®
Founded in 1824, The Macallan® is one of the world’s most admired and awarded single malt whiskies. The reputation of The Macallan is based on a product of outstanding quality and distinctive character, founded upon a set of guiding principles, the Six Pillars. An obsession with quality has been the hallmark of The Macallan since its founding by Alexander Reid on a plateau above the river Spey in north-east Scotland. The distillery is surrounded by a 150 hectare estate, with Easter Elchies House, a Highland Manor built in 1700, at its heart.
Traditionally known for maturation in sherry seasoned oak casks, The Macallan’s range of outstanding single malts includes: Sherry Oak, matured in Spanish oak casks seasoned with sherry; Fine Oak, matured both in sherry casks of Spanish and American oak and in American oak casks seasoned with bourbon; the 1824 Collection, exclusive to Global Travel Retail and the 1824 Series built on the principle of natural colour. In addition, The Macallan is well known for its great range of vintage whiskies, dating back to 1926, and is considered the most sought after of all single malts among collectors and connoisseurs at auction.
In November 2010, The Macallan set a staggering new Guinness World RecordTM for the “most expensive whisky sold at auction”. The Macallan in Lalique 64 year old: Cire Perdue was sold for $460,000 and every single penny of this was donated to charity: water to help fund life changing clean water projects in the developing world. This was arguably the defining moment in the recent history of The Macallan, but one which reinforces its position as one of the world’s greatest whiskies.
About Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s Wine auctions in 2012 brought an overall global total of $64,462,965. Sotheby’s overall total of $88.27 million for global wine auctions in 2010 is the highest in the company’s forty-two years of wine auctions. 2011 brought an overall global total of US$85,467,096. The Lafite Ex Cellars sale – of First Growth Bordeaux directly from Château Lafite-Rothschild – held by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in October 2010 set a new record for a single standard sized bottle at auction when a bottle of Château Lafite 1869 sold for $232,692. This means that Sotheby’s now holds the world records for a standard bottle, a bottle in any format – the Jeroboam of Château Mouton Rothschild 1945 which fetched $310,700 in February 2007 in New York – and any wine lot at auction – 50 cases of Château Mouton Rothschild 1982 which sold for US$1,051,600 at Sotheby’s New York in 2006.
Sotheby’s has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby’s became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby’s presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby’s BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world. Sotheby’s offers collectors the resources of Sotheby’s Financial Services, the world’s only full-service art financing company, as well as private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art department, and two retail businesses, Sotheby’s Diamonds and Sotheby’s Wine. Sotheby’s has a global network of 90 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).
