Bottle of Macallan Whisky Sells for Record-Shattering $628,205
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This weekend, a single bottle of rare Macallan 'M' whisky sold for $628,205 at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong.
The purchase, which was well over the expected price range of $258,000 to $516, 000, crushed the previous record of $460,000 paid in 2010 for a bottle of whisky at a Sotheby's auction in New York.
This is just another indication of Asia's growing affection for whisky (Singapore is now the world's largest consumer of Scotch and last week, news broke that Japanese drink group Suntory, of Lost in Translation fame, will purchase American Whiskey distillery Jim Beam for $16 billion.)
Related: Would You Buy a $39,700 Bottle of Wine? Someone Did.
As the Asian market matures -- and the honeymoon period with fine wine ends -- expensive, high-end whisky is increasingly seen as an alternative investment opportunity.
"In 2009, we only sold a handful of wines. Now that the market is expanding, and buyers become more sophisticated and knowledge, whisky becomes a part of that," Robert Sleigh, head of wine, Sotheby's Asia told CNBC on Monday.
