Monthly newsletter for December 2022

Dear All,

Just like that it is the end of the year – amazing how time flies. We’re now looking ahead to 2023, which is turning into what seems like a very interesting start with all the volatility in the markets. 

The press cycle around whisky that started last month continues, with the FT recently reporting that whisky is being increasingly seen as a “flight to safety” asset, with fine and rare single malts having jumped +20% so far this year (based on an audit of 580,000 transactions on whisky auctions). Speaking of auction houses, Bowmore seems to be having its moment to shine in the secondary market, with 3 Bowmore whiskies beating their forecast in a Bonhams auction in Paris (including a 35 year old forecast to sell as low as US$16,900 closing at US$21,907). This is an encouraging sign for where we are playing as SVC and this should provide us with further tailwinds as we head into next year. This is already being seen in our portfolio, which has delivered +2.2% to our investors this month, predominantly driven by our Karuizawa 2000 Balanced Sherry and Karuizawa 1992 # 3330, and brings us up to +16% return for our investors so far in ‘22.

We continue to see more bottlings of casks come onto the market, which is encouraging for the industry and definitely something that we will be doing more of in ‘23 given our capabilities. A 30 year old Macallan will be released in May ‘23, which would be a great bottle to pick up, as well as the third instalment of Prima Ultima, a collection of vintage single malts from Brora, Port Ellen and The Singleton.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful Christmas break and exciting start to 2023!

Marek, Marc, Neil, Gary