Cask Guides

Whisky is 2019's top performing luxury investment. An increase of 40% on rare bottle values in the last 12 months far outstrips the more established alternative asset investments such as art, wine and cars.

The previous year also saw a record-breaking fee achieved for a bottle at auction, a Macallan 1926 selling for an extraordinary £1.5m at Sotheby's this October. Over £40m worth of rare whisky was sold at auction during 2018 alone. This month a cask of Macallan distilled in 1989 sold for $572,000, a new world record for a maturing cask of whisky. The four-year growth from December 2014 in rare whisky has increased over 160%, compared to just 2.47% for the FTSE 100.

Scotch Whisky is exported to 180 markets worldwide. In 2017 alone, exports of Scotch rose 9% to a record £4.36 billion; in 2018 it hit £4.7 billion. In the first half of 2018, the value of exports was over 10% greater than in 2017. There are currently 20 million casks of whisky maturing in Scottish bonded warehouses, with Scotch accounting for 20% of the United Kingdom’s entire food and drinks exports.

Within 3 years, over thirty new distilleries have been founded and several legendary closed distilleries restored to full working condition. Recently these distilleries have seen cask sales as a source of early revenue. Un-aged casks of new-make spirit can cost in excess of £6000. Our starting price for casks is £1,500 for three-year-old whisky.