Monthly newsletter for October 2022

Dear All,

It’s been a very busy couple of months, so last month we couldn’t get to our newsletter, but we’re back with a stacked edition that covers country updates, bottles to watch for your collection, and a sneak peak on the performance of our own portfolio over the last 2 months!

With persistent inflation and markets gyrating globally, investors continue to rush into real assets and collectibles, which puts us in very good stead over the next 12 to 18 months with increased demand in the category. The interest continues to lie in high age statements, with the well known brands leading the charge. Our whisky portfolio is already up close to +7% year-to-date, so our investors have been pleasantly surprised how strong this macro trend actually is. Last month we saw our Macallan Fine and Rare 1990 jump 21% to £11,500, and the Hanyu 2000 Ichiro’s Malt / Four of Spades climbing +50% to £9,700. This month we say our Karuizawa 1981 Noh Single Cask 35 Year Old #6183 climb +65% to £9,600 and the Springbank 25 year old 2014 release rise an astounding +320% to just over £1,300. It looks like the bet on real assets continues to hold, and whisky is no exception.

It has been a few years that we have been touting the rise of the Indian consumer with a taste for whisky, and the 150% tariff on imports of Scotch to India is very close to getting lowered (but unlikely in time for Diwali). This will continue to speed up the momentum of sales in India moving from volume to higher value, very much in a similar way that we have seen this shift in China over the last 5 years. Good news for us is that this demand will continue to put pressure on prices for collectible bottles. Since we’re talking markets, here’s a great write up in the Nikkei on the Japanese whisky industry, as we build up to the centenary celebrations of whisky first being made in Japan in 1923.

In other industry news, the oldest whisky sold at a Sotheby’s auction 2 weeks ago, the Macallan 81 year old, for a healthy price $340,000 representing an almost 3X return if one had purchased it at release for $125,000. This is still a far cry below the world’s most expensive standard-size bottle, a Macallan 1926 60 year old, which sold for around $1.9 million in 2019. In terms of interesting releases, over the last 24 months we mentioned at our AGM’s that Littlemill is a distillery to watch, and last month they announced the release of their 45 year old. Littlemill is a closed distillery that started operations as the oldest in Scotland back in November of 1772, and was the first to be granted licence by King George III. For the moment though, we will continue to watch as the secondary market still seems unsure about the brand. For those of us that are into something a little more accessible, but on the heavily peated side, we would suggest picking up the new Octomore releases from Bruichladdich as soon as next week – we warn you that these are not for the faint of heart (especially as they are around the 60% ABV mark). For those of you leaning towards Japanese liquid, Yamazaki continues to build on its brand reputation with the launch of the 2022 Yamazaki Tsukuriwake Whisky Collection (non-age statement single malts, but definitely worth a tipple).

Marek, Marc, Neil, Gary