November 16, 2010
Scottish spirits maker Macallan partnered with auction house Sotheby's to sell off a 64-year-old bottle of Scotch in a Lalique-branded decanter to benefit the nonprofit organization, charity: water.
The bottle auctioned at $460,000 with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting the charity. The auction has launched in April and has since toured internationally to raise funds for charity: water, ending its tour in New York on Nov. 15.
“We have taken it through 12 different cities,” said David Cox, director of fine and rare whiskeys at The Macallan, Scotland. “Throughout that whole global road show, we have raised a tremendous amount of interest from the media and the trade and consumers.
“At each stop, we have auctioned off the whiskey and that has raised over $145,000,” he said.
The Macallan is a single malt Scotch whiskey, produced at the Macallan Distilleries.
Sotheby’s is global company that specializes in art auction, private sales and art-related financing activities. It claims to be the oldest and largest firm of recognized firm of fine art auctioneers in the world.
Rene Lalique was a glass maker of the Art Deco movement whose work influenced perfume bottles, glasses, vases and statuettes. His work appears in more than 40 musuems.
Charity: water is a nonprofit organization that is committed to bringing safe, clean drinking water to people in developing countries.
Lalique created a bespoke decanter for the auction using the “cire perdue” method. The bottle contains a 64-year-old single malt whiskey, the oldest ever bottled by Macallan. The money raised for charity: water from the beginning of its global road show in April totals at $605,000 and will impact 30,250 lives internationally.
Here is a list of locations, auction prices and dates that The Macallan 64-Year-Old in Lalique: Cire Perdue has seen:
• Beverly Hills - $16,000 on Nov. 3, 2010
• Osaka – $13,600 on Oct. 22, 2010
• Singapore – $11,470 on Oct. 7, 2010
• Shanghai – $15,200 on Sept. 24, 2010
• Taipei – $41,000 on Sept. 9, 2010
• Seoul – $5,900 on Aug.11, 2010
• Hong Kong – $17,300 on July 17, 2010
• Moscow - $5,650 on May 26, 2010
• London - $8,880 on May 10, 2010
• Paris - $5,000 on April 6, 2010
“Water is a cause that is important for us to support,” Mr. Cox said. “Water is one of the three ingredients used to make Macallan and water is also important for Lalique.
“Although we do everything we can to conserve water, we are aware that there is a shortage and that it will become a bigger issue as time goes on,” he said.
“We are both a part of very strong philanthropic traditions and associating with charity: water is a just a continuation of that.”
The auction was streamed for consumers to watch and bid live via The Macallan’s blog. It targets a wide geographic spread of people including collectors and whiskey, wine and Lalique connoisseurs. The auction also targets philanthropists.
“The Macallan has been known for a long time for being innovative within our product category,” Mr. Cox said. “We are considered as being a dynamic brand and we wanted to partner with another innovative brand like Lalique.
“Charity: water themselves were only founded in 2004 and have already raised a tremendous amount of money,” he said. “The strategy was really to say that if we are going to embark on this enterprise that we work with like-minded partners.
“We needed to make sure that the partners we were working with were like-minded and have similar values and aims as us.”
Share your thoughts. Click here
