It’s become a habit around here to pair the cigar of the day with a warming dram of The Macallan 18-year-old single-malt scotch — there’s nothing quite like following your cigar with something only slightly younger than your second wife.

That’s why we wanted to attend the first auction of spirits in New York City since Prohibition, hosted by Christie’s last December 8 — after all, it represented a rare chance to pick up not only a supremely aged bottle, but perhaps one with historical import.

If only we had knocked off a bank on the way over. A beautiful bottle of 1926 Macallan, aged 60 years in a wood barrel before its 1986 bottling, ended up selling for $54,000 to a private collector. The most expensive bottle of scotch ever offered by the eminent auction house, each sip allegedly boasted a suitably complex nose, taste and finish, with strong notes of wood, dried fruit and treacle toffee (yes, we’re still bitter).

And while we could have consoled ourselves with another bottle from the 100 lots’ worth of whiskies, cognac, armagnac, calvados or chartreuse on the block, we instead decided to retire and nurse our wounds with — what else? — a little bit of Macallan.

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