Monthly newsletter for August 2020

Dear Readers,

It is a tradition for us to report our monthly returns to investors on the 15th of each month via a dedicated newsletter. But given how interest in the Spirit Vault Collective continues to grow, we have decided to launch a monthly newsletter to our network.  So welcome to our first public outreach to the wider Collective!

Last month we held our second bi-annual investor call, and shared more insight on the market and where we see our portfolio ending the year.  Given the strong interest in the content, we plan to also launch an open public webinar soon for those that are more interested in the art of whisky collecting, but in the meantime please check out our Founder’s interview on Tigerhall regarding the “Basics of Whisky Investing”.

We’ve had another great month of returns on our portfolio, coupled with some positive tailwinds on the GBP:SGD exchange rate and overall recovery of market sentiment. This has resulted in 2.36% returns in July, which provides us 4.84% return in the first 4 months of our second year of operations, and means we are on track to hit our annual goal of +12% for a second year running.

We are happy to have finally received our Macallan Fine and Rares, the 1979 and the 1990, after a nearly 10 month wait, and we’ve already seen a 50% return on those bottles over that time period. Other notable bottles we recently acquired were a handful of Buffalo Trace Antiques 2019, the George T Stagg, Thomas H Handy and the William Laurie Wellers. We have also seen good increases on our official bottlings of Rosebank, as both up over 100% this month alone.

In industry news, some of you may have heard about the 40yr old Port Ellen release announced by Diageo from the currently closed, but soon to be reopened distillery.  Japan Times also released a piece last month on the continued rise of collectible Japanese whiskies, most encouragingly also amongst the younger demographic in their 20s and 30s. There has also been a launch of the Bowmore X Aston Martin single malt collaboration to much marketing fanfare, which signals continued interest in the category by luxury brands trying to reach distinctive users. This marketing will continue in force as the value of whisky continues to appreciate, but we would recommend our investors to not consider these limited launches as part of their own investment portfolio given their “full price” already at launch. Please feel free to reach out to us if you’re considering any purchases for investment purposes – we would be happy to advise.

And lastly, we are also pleased to announce that we have formally signed our strategic partnership with WhiskyBrother, which outlines the terms of our partnership including how we value the purchase and sale of our whiskies through WhiskyBrother. It’s great that our relationship since inception is now formally in place, given how important this partnership is in realising optimal returns for our investor’s portfolios. More details on the partnership will be posted here on our website news section in the coming few weeks.

Marek, Marc, Neil, Gary