Wee dram, massive price tag

When you can call $600,000 a bargain, you know the price of rare whisky has gone ballistic, says Chris Carter.

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A 1926 Macallan with a Peter Blake label fetched $1m

Last month Dubai-airport retailer Le Clos sold two bottles of a rare 1926 Macallan whisky. There are only 24 bottles of the vintage in existence. Twelve have a special label by Peter Blake (the British pop artist perhaps best known as the co-creator of the sleeve design for The Beatles' album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) and the other 12 bear a label by Valerio Adami, an Italian artist. Le Clos sold one of each, at $600,000 apiece. It sounded a lot for what was then a record price for a wee dram. In hindsight, the buyer appears to have swiped themselves a bargain.

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

You can follow Chris on Instagram.