In 1996, Private Eye was celebrating its 35th anniversary and commissioned Macallan to create a bottle of whisky that would be widely available to Private Eye’s readers. The whisky is no-age statement, but does contain whisky from a cask distilled in 1961, the year of Private Eye’s founding. The rest of the whisky is a vatting of many of Macallan’s sherry oak casks, hence the deep colour of the whisky. The release was limited to 5,000 bottles and had a release price of £36 plus £6.95 for postage and packaging. Whilst this may seem extremely cheap by today’s standards, in 1986 this was a fairly expensive price to pay for a no-age-statement bottle of whisky.

The label of the Macallan Private Eye was, famously, designed by Ralph Steadman, an illustrator who is well-known for his social and political caricatures. Steadman had worked previously for Private Eye as well as other high-profile publications such as The New York Times and Rolling Stone, and was an avid whisky fan, so it seemed only right that he should be the one to design the label.