In May 2009, a bottle of 1919 Springbank single-malt Scotch whisky was offered for sale at whiskyinvestments.com with an asking price of 55,000 euros ($84,800). Only 24 bottles of this particular tipple were ever produced, and this is the only one of three known still to exist that is available for purchase.
According to The Whisky Blog, the Springbank Distillery was founded in 1828 on the site of an illicit still run by Archibald Mitchell. “Springbank is the only distillery in Scotland to carry out the full production process on the one site. One hundred percent of the traditional floor malting, maturation, and bottling is done at the distillery in Campbeltown.”
Investment Rewards Beat the Stock Market
For people who know what they are doing, there’s serious money to be made in the buying and selling of rare whiskies.
In 2007, the World Whisky Index was founded in the Netherlands and, according to whiskyinvestments.com there has been “an average 30.4 percent collected profit since the launch.”
At the World Whisky Index, investors can set up a portfolio of hooch just as they might with stocks and bonds. A “Whisky Ticker” advises customers of the rise and fall (sadly, there are drops just as with the Dow Jones) of various brands and ages.
The exchange runs very much like a commodities market. Investors usually don’t take delivery of the bottles they own, but trade them and only take delivery of the profits.
Whisky Goes on the Auction Block
Collectors trade whisky through auctions and private sales as well. BBC News (August 6, 2009) reported on an auction in Glasgow, Scotland where a single bottle of “50-year-old Macallan, a bottling of three casks distilled between 1926 and 1928, sold to a private collector in California… “It is the most expensive bottle sold this year and the most expensive 50-year-old bottle of Macallan ever sold.” The collector paid $19,754 U.S. for the bottle and its contents.
The sale was conducted by McTear’s Auctioneers, whose whisky expert Andrew Bell, said, “We knew that out of almost 600 different lots the Macallan Anniversary 50-year-old was the stand out bottle in the sale and its quite clear that others agreed. Whisky collectors from across the world joined the sale by phone and through the internet and the price paid is a reflection of its importance to collectors and investors in whisky.”
Toronto Collector Owns 1,000 Bottles
Writing in The Globe and Mail (July 31, 2009) Paul Waldie describes the collection of Toronto whisky connoisseur Ed Patrick who “owns 1,000 bottles of single malt Scotch. A collector for two decades, he has paid as much as $3,500 for just one bottle.” This stuff is not meant for drinking. Waldie writes that Patrick’s “one taste of 50-year-old Scotch tasted too much like the barrel. ‘It tasted okay, almost on the cusp of being overpowered by wood,’ he said.”
However, should the investment tank the collector always has something on hand to drown his or her sorrows.
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