Whisky investment worth a shot
Often with very limited availability, rare spirits are becoming highly soughtafter, as auction sales of Scotch and Japanese whisky achieve record figures
RARE WHISK(E)Y IS coming of age as an investment proposition, so perhaps it may be an opportune moment to clear a space in the cellar – or maybe you’ve got a bottle that you’d be willing to part with?
It is four years since a senior member of the then-Zachys auction team told Decanter that he expected to see many more rare whiskies going under the hammer across the market.
His forecast appears to be coming to fruition, in light of news that sales of single malt Scotch whisky at auction reached £25.06 million in the UK alone in 2017, up by 76% on 2016.
Sales rose by 42.47% in volume terms, to 83,713 bottles, according to the new annual report by Rare Whisky 101, a specialist valuation, brokerage and consultancy service for collectors.
‘The volume of bottles on the open market is at record
highs, but demand for the right bottles, for now at least, continues to exceed these record levels of supply,’ said Andy Simpson, who cofounded Rare Whisky 101 with David Robertson.
As we have seen for DRC or Bordeaux first growths, demand is also international.
‘We are experiencing increasing demand from
almost all parts of the globe,’ said 101’s Robertson. ‘South East Asia remains a key factor for the market.’
One Swedish enthusiast, Christian Svantesson, has set up a Single Malt Fund that will be supervised by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, with the aim of delivering annual returns of 10% for investors.
It isn’t just Scotch. Sotheby’s recently sold a single bottle of 50-year-old Yamazaki Japanese whisky at auction in Hong Kong for HK$2.3 million (US$298,879), making it one of the most expensive Japanese whiskies in the world and ‘illustrating a whisky market in full swing’, according to Paul Wong, a Sotheby’s wine specialist in Asia.