LIQUID HISTORY IN THE MAKING

If it's a luxury dram you're after, Blair Bowman has all the top tips on how to kickstart your show-stopping collection

While some collect fine art, others invest in rare drams, and the almighty price tag that goes with them is but small change to highend collectors, says Blair Bowman

The world of luxury whisky is a fascinating one and I find myself reflecting on the idea of a consumable luxury like whisky as there is so little else in our lives that is truly comparable. Whisky is unlike fine art, which can sell for hundreds of millions of pounds and change hands multiple times and last indefinitely, as long as it is well preserved.

Yet even though it is a consumable, whisky is, in my humble opinion, equally worthy of commanding similarly high prices to the best art. The rarity of certain whiskies means it is irreplaceable. Fine and rare whisky is liquid history you can ingest. Each bottle opened and consumed puts that bottling or whisky closer to extinction.

As well as art, vintage wines and eye-wateringly expensive property, high-end whisky collections are fast becoming a must-have for ultra-high net-worth individuals. Yet while many of these fledgling collectors have deep pockets, many are just setting out on the road to whisky enlightenment and need guidance on where to start their collection.

When people with deep pockets ask me about the mechanics of building a wonderful whisky collection, there are several good starting points, many of which also apply to collectors with more limited means. Do you, I ask, want to collect bottles from one distillery? Or perhaps you want bottles from your birth year? Or do you spread your collection across bottles of different vintages and styles?

The richest and most ambitious collectors follow the example set by celebrated New York industrialist and philanthropist Henry Clay Frick, who collected the best available pieces of art from virtually every major artist who has ever lived, whether from the medieval or 20thcentury. His watchword was excellence, and if you visit his stunning Italianate villa on Central Park you’ll recognise virtually every painting – from Titian and Turner, to Rembrandt and Renoir – that hangs there.

The sort of ambition and expenditure such a collection entails, however, is beyond all but a handful of collectors, even among the high net-worth individuals who have asked me for help curating the whisky collections at their various properties dotted across the globe. For virtually every collector there is a choice to be made around what type of whisky you collect, and it’s a choice that can be governed by something as arbitrary as geographical location or climate.

However, help is at hand, and if you want to start an affordable luxury whisky collection on your own, a few distilleries now offer the chance to purchase sets of bottles to kick-start a collection.

One good example is Diageo’s newly released Prima & Ultima collection, a collection of eight highly sought after single vintage malt whiskies.

The Prima & Ultima refers to the fact that this is the first and last

chance to own these particular whiskies, which form part of a new annually released collection. These bottles are not for sale as individual expressions, the set must be purchased as a whole and there are only 238 sets available.

The first release of the Prima & Ultima Collection whiskies are natural cask strength, non-chill filtered and with no colour added. The whiskies in the inaugural collection are a Caol Ila 1984 (35-year-old, 50.8% ABV), Clynelish 1993 (26-year-old, 49.8% ABV), Cragganmore 1971 (48-yearold, 43.7% ABV), Lagavulin 1991 (28-year-old, 50.1% ABV), Mortlach 1994 (25-year-old, 55.1% ABV), Port Ellen 1979 (40-year-old, 51.2% ABV), Singleton of Dufftown 1988 (30-year-old, 48.8%), and Talisker 1988 (31-year-old, 51.4% ABV).

It is a seriously impressive line-up of old and rare whiskies from across the portfolio of Diageo distilleries, for which the recommended retail price for a set is £20,000. That is £2,500 per bottle and gives you 263 years’ worth of whisky. When you see some of the names listed and the particular age statements, incredible though it may seem it is actually a relatively fair price for those wishing to start a luxury whisky collection.

Another example of luxury whisky available as a collectors set is the Glenfarclas Pagoda Reserve Series. Originally released in 2016 as a set of three vintages (43-year-old, 48-year-old and 59-year-old) there were only 100 sets available and the whisky came in crystal decanters designed by Glencairn crystal and finished with precious metals and detailed engravings.

Orginally the 100 sets were available for roughly £31,000 each, but in March this year the Glenfarlcas Pagoda Ruby Reserve 62-year-old was added to the series, with the age statement of ‘62’ on the front of the bottle being replete with hand-mounted precious gemstones.

The Ruby Reserve comes in two editions – the Silver Edition, just 180 bottles (700ml) and 62 magnum bottles (1.5L), and the Gold Edition, with only 50 bottles (700ml) and 50 magnum bottles (1.5L). Prices range from £22,716 for the Silver Edition bottle to £53,546 for the Gold Edition magnum. Then in June the release of the Sapphire reserve, a 63-year-old whisky, completed the Glenfarclas Pagoda Series (with sapphires mounted on the ‘63’ age statement). Again, the Pagoda Series is available in two special editions – the Silver Edition, just 180 bottles (700ml) and 63 magnum bottles (1.5L), and the Gold Edition of only 45 magnum bottles (1.5L), with prices starting from £28,539 and going up to £67,272. However, if you are wanting to get the full set of five bottles in the series in 700ml Silver Edition you can buy it for £115,000.

To some these elaborate decanters may seem extravagant, but then you would not expect a Monet or Van Gogh to sit in a plywood frame, so why would anyone expect a phenomenally rare whisky to be housed in anything other than a bottle that elevates its status as a work of historical liquid art?

Some consumers may think the pricing of these luxury whiskies is inflated but to a small percentage of individuals this is a chance to own something incredibly rare. Meanwhile, my hunch is that this high-end of the luxury world of whisky creates a halo effect for the whole industry, elevating the status of whisky worldwide, putting it on par with other fine and rare luxury goods and, in so doing, it pushes the whole category of whisky into the realms of luxury. That is good for everyone, from top to bottom.

Each bottle opened and consumed puts that particular bottling or whisky closer to extinction