We’ve all heard about the trend for investing in fine wine but there’s another tipple muscling in on the investment action – whisky.
If you think about it, it’s a logical trend. The best whiskies are highly desirable, improve with age, and supply of the most sought-after bottles is seriously limited. Add in new demand from the cash-rich South American and Chinese markets and you’ve got yourself a strong potential for profit – providing you know your Balvenies from your blends.
The advantages over fine wines include the fact that whisky never ‘goes off’ once bottled and that it is made in significantly smaller amounts. And if people buy to drink, as is the case with many affluent Chinese buyers, then the rarity – and potentially price – can only go up.
A good example can be found with a bottle of 62 year old Dalmore single malt, of which only 12 were ever produced. In 2005 a bottle was picked up in a Surrey bar for a cool £32,000 and consumed on the spot. In 2011, a Chinese businessman bought another in Singapore’s Changi Airport for £125,000. Not a bad profit for anyone holding one of the 10 remaining bottles.
Whisky has been on the investment radar before when a trend for buying casks started up in the 1990s but the bubble proved short-lived due to problems with quality and authentication. Fortunately, bottles avoid these problems and prestigious auction houses such as Bonhams have been quick to cater to the new demand.
The drinks giant Diageo certainly seems to share our enthusiasm for the drink and has announced a £1billion investment into its Scottish distilleries to help meet global demand. Diageo’s boss, Paul Walsh, said to The Guardian that, “Scotch is resonating with consumers from Boston to Beijing” and that the business had achieved, “remarkable, sustained global growth” which they expect to continue.
This increasing popularity is sure to have a knock-on effect as fans become connoisseurs and look to start their own collections. The only drawback is that to make the most from your investment you’ll have to leave the cap firmly on the bottle.
July 16th, 2012 by admin
