At The Intersection Of Booze & Art

It takes a special (some may say “weird”) kind of genius to take a rare whisky, hunt down a vintage decanter for it, and then have a lacquered box made to put it in. (Photo by Stefano Pileggi)

I was visiting Collezione New York, the place in Manhattan to gawk at insanely rare whiskies I’ll never be able to afford, for a kibitzing session with owner Stefano Pileggi about his plans for the store for 2024 when a delivery came in. “Can you stick around for a minute?” he asked. “I want you to see these.” I actually didn’t have time… and I wound up being late to pick my daughter up from school. But it was worth it. Inside the package was two of the most beautiful bottles of whisky I’d ever laid eyes on, in elaborate crystal decanters housed inside bespoke lacquered wooden boxes. And this wasn’t just any old whisky in those bottles — it was 35 year old Macallan, laid down in 1938 and bottled in 1973. Well, originally bottled. They’d since been re-bottled in the decanters by Ernesto Mainardi. Who’s Ernesto Mainardi, you might ask? I didn’t know either, but I knew I had to find out what the story was with these bottles. Once Stefano gave me a little background info, I did some research and found that Mainardi is one of the seminal figures in the history of single malt Scotch whisky, and these bottles are the latest chapter in his unique career.

I’d tell you more, but I’ll stop there and let you read the whole story about the man, the bottles, and how they wound up at Collezione. It’s in Forbes, and the link is -> HERE <-.