The Macallan Fine & Rare 52 Year Old 1950

The Macallan

Fine & Rare 52 Year Old 1950
Cask no.598

The legendary Macallan brand's most famous series is the Fine & Rare collection.

Macallan is a thriving whiskey brand with countless high-priced products, including high-vintage spirits, the "Shining" series, and the Fine & Rare collection, which is the focus of today's discussion. This series has long been seen in auction houses, with most bottles being of considerable value, especially those released in earlier years, which are particularly expensive.

The most famous transaction to date occurred in 2017, when a set of 52 Macallan Fine & Rare bottles from 1926 to 1991, provided by a British collector, was sold for a staggering 80 million yuan (several times the market price) due to its completeness and the hype surrounding it, reflecting the collector's obsession with the Macallan Fine & Rare series.

Introduction to Macallan Fine & Rare

Long history and limited quantity create a legendary series

All of Macallan Fine & Rare are bottled from single casks, with clear barrel and bottling quantity markings on the label. The prominently displayed year on the label is the distilled year, not the bottling year, so the release order is not the same as the year marked on the bottle. For example, Fine & Rare 1947 was released in 1962, while Fine & Rare 1946 was only released in 2002. The reasons for this are related to the process of whiskey barrel aging. Each barrel of whiskey is suitable for aging for a different amount of time, and exceeding the appropriate aging time can actually reduce the quality. Therefore, the distillery must monitor the barrels every year and release them when necessary. Because of this, the Fine & Rare series is not necessarily more expensive for earlier vintage years and must consider other factors as well.