A bottle of The Macallan 1926, described by Sothebys auction house as the most valuable whisky in the world, on Saturday went under the hammer for a record £2.1 million.

The rare bottle had been expected to raise between £750,000 and £1.2 million but outstripped estimates to fetch £2,187,500 (2.5 million euros, $2.7 million).

The sale set a new record for any bottle of spirit or wine sold at auction, Sothebys told AFP.

One of the Macallan 1926 bottles had set a previous record for the most expensive bottle ever sold in 2019, when it fetched £1.5 million at the same London auction house.

Sothebys head of whisky Jonny Fowle told AFP ahead of the sale that he had been allowed to sample the prized whisky.

I tasted a tiny drop - a tiny drop - of this. Its very rich, its got a lot of dried fruit as you would expect, a lot of spice, a lot of wood, he said.

He said it had spent 60 years in dark European oak, which was reflected in the colour.

Its not a whisky to take lightly. Its a rich, rich dram, but it is incredible, he said.

The bottles are among only 40 that Macallan, based in Moray, northern Scotland, has confirmed were bottled from Cask 263 in 1986.(AFP)