The Macallan Revives Its 1926 Legend With a Rare New Whisky

The Macallan is marking the centenary of its legendary 1926 whisky with a new ultra-limited release that brings back three artists long tied to the distillery’s most famous bottle. The Scotch producer said on Wednesday that it will launch the Romantica Collection, a set of three single malt whiskies drawn from cask No. 9925, a single European oak barrel filled in 1986 and matured for 40 years at The Macallan Estate in Speyside, Scotland.

The collection revives the names of Sir Peter Blake, Valerio Adami and Michael Dillon, who first helped turn The Macallan 1926 into an object of global collecting after the distillery rediscovered cask No. 263 decades after it had been laid down in 1926 under Janet “Nettie” Harbison, then in charge of production. That whisky later became the most expensive bottle of wine or spirit ever sold at auction. The new release is meant to connect that history to a second barrel that began its own long aging cycle in 1986.

The Romantica Collection will consist of 258 bottles in all, with 86 bottles dedicated to each artist. Each bottle will be sold as part of a complete three-bottle set, available only on request beginning July 30, 2026. The company did not disclose pricing.

The project pairs each whisky with a new artwork created exclusively for this edition. Blake’s collage, titled The Music Room, returns to Easter Elchies House, the historic home associated with The Macallan, and places the scene in 1986 during the opening of The Macallan Octagon Room. Adami’s Romantica (1986) depicts Harbison in a red dress against a Scottish landscape and links the original 1926 story to the present release. Dillon’s The Macallan Estate focuses on Speyside’s landscape and shows the modern distillery beneath its green roof.

Each label is signed by the artist who created it. The presentation box for each bottle is made from custom European oak and decorated with the corresponding artwork. Inside are a numbered certificate signed by Kirsteen Campbell, The Macallan’s master whisky maker, along with a booklet and a limited-edition giclée print.

Jaume Ferras, The Macallan’s creative director, said the collection reflects “an extraordinary confluence of time, creativity and craftsmanship,” adding that the artists’ work gives new meaning to a whisky shaped over four decades in silence. Campbell said the barrel’s long maturation produced “an elegant” spirit with fruit, spice and oak notes.

The whisky is bottled at 48.6% alcohol by volume and is described by the distillery as naturally colored. The tasting notes point to apricot jam, peach in syrup and sweet-and-sour caramel on the nose, followed by candied ginger, soft cinnamon, old oak and a faint wood smoke note. On the palate, The Macallan cites brown sugar, glazed peach and lychee before darker cherries, molasses and a light peat smoke character emerge. The finish is said to bring dried fruit, leather and dark chocolate.

The release arrives as luxury spirits makers continue to lean on scarcity, provenance and art collaborations to sustain demand among collectors. For The Macallan, which has built much of its prestige around sherry-seasoned oak casks and long aging times, the new collection extends one of whisky’s most closely watched brand narratives: a story that began with an overlooked barrel in 1926 and now reaches another milestone through a barrel filled six decades later.