Whisky as an investment?

Yes i do,i m sure for now that buying whisky,scotches and bourbon are a good affair for the future.I just bought a locked cabinet that i use to put my rarest sample of this superb drink,just to be sure my bottle are in peaceful place!!!Good luck with your investment,i m sure it will be better to buy whiskies than put your money at the bank for a very small interest.

It seems Whisky is the new Wine, and folks are all aflutter about grabbing up the expensive stuff. As always, do what makes you happy. However, I am an economist by education, and after 9 years of learning more than anyone should be forced to on the subject, I feel confident in saying, "Be careful!" Whisky, like wine, like pork bellies, like winter wheat, etc. are commodities. Like any commodity investment, things may or may not go well. Currently, as the Chinese are taking over the world, precious commodities are looking like the place to be long term. However, it is inevitable that someday they will come to their senses at which point investments like this will seem foolish. Of course, this may not happen in our lifetimes, but when it does, people who thought that commodity markets always outperform financial markets will be slightly regretful. Of course, the good thing about whisky is we can always drink it. I simply warn about putting nest eggs in baskets.

@Zanaspus Good information my friend and I totally agree with you. You can use pretty much anything as an investment, but you have to realize that the bottom of it might fall out and you maybe left with nothing. It's one of the reasons that the whiskies my wife and I collect for investment are always whiskies that we know we enjoy and are whiskies that we would be happy to drink for the price we paid. That way worse comes to worse and the whiskies don't increase in value, etc, we're just left with some yummy bottles of the good stuff that we can share with our family and friends with no harm done.

Sure why not. I'd rather invest in whisky than in stocks or the financial market, for argument's sake. If the world doesn't collapse soon in an epic, spiralling pile of stagflationary debt (or maybe even if it does), you have thousands of new millionaires popping up in places like China, whom, shielded from the fall of the Western financial systems, will someday soon be clamoring for the "top shelf" lifestyle and all its perks, including fine single malts. The whisky market would seem to be safe for now, in my humble opinion.

But as has been mentioned, buy cheap when you can (and while stocks last), plan to keep some for a "rainy day" (buy now to drink later), or plan to sell later, but if you're wise with your purchases you can have the best of both worlds and delay the decision until you need to act.

Also, nothing wrong with a few spares as "trading" stock..

I own every single batch of Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey from Batch 24 on (we're up to Batch 79 at the moment) and a few of the batchs before that. I still add every batch to my collection, and plan to do so for as long as they have individually numbered batches. It is the most comprehensive collection of it's kind in the world.

Stranahan's archives a case of every batch--I had planned to convince them to sell me all of my missing batches--but when the distillery moved to their new digs, some scurvy shyster bastard stole the archives, so their early archives are lost. Jim Murry has every batch, but his are opened.

Eventually, I think this will pan out to being a decent investment, especially since I have earned most of the bottles by working on bottling crews and doing other work for the distillery. I am excited to see how it all pans out and frustrated that I will have to wait years to find out.

Worst case? I'll drink it (sob...)

Here is my 2 cents on investing in whisky: maltmileage.com/2016/01/…

Cheers

@maltmileage excellent article - thanks for sharing

I kind-of bought whisky with a mind to "investing" once, before I really knew anything about whisky. That was when it looked like the SWA might force Glenora to change the name of Glen Breton. Well, we all know how that turned out. They kept their name and the bottles are worth more than the contents...

I have a few bottles that were gifts that are probably considered collectibles. Since I've actually taken an interest in whisky I've accumulated a lot of bottles, but only stuff that I wanted to consume. In my enthusiasm I have developed quite a backlog.

Now, looking online, I see that some of the bottles, like some Springbank on-offs, have appreciated in value. But at the same time, as my palate matures, I think they have appreciated in "Value to me". So I don't plan to sell them. I plan to drink them and I will definitely look at their market value at time of opening to see what a great deal I got.

And when I die, my kids can either drink the rest or pay for their kids' tuition...

At times like these I often wish I considered whisky for an investment.

Aside from the 500% return I could have made on my Macallan CS I bought just under 2 years ago, I just happened upon the whisky exchange website (for an unrelated issue). and the Writer's tears CS 2014 that I bought for 70 Euro (free postage) in August is now for sale for 100 GBP! that's a 200% annual return.

Of course, to sell it, I would have to be able to access it...and my friend still has it in storage in Florida..

Imagine what it will be worth when he finally brings it over... exactly $0 once I crack the seal with some friends over!

I think I was just in time to buy some Japanese age statement and/or rare bottles for the old regular price. Most of them have at least doubled up in price in half a year, so I think I'll sit on them for a little longer. Of most of them I bought 2, one to drink and one to sell or do tastings with.

One of the guys at work likes the occasional dram, unfortunately when he was a child decided it would be a good idea to open the bottle grandma kept in the wardrobe in the spare room. So much for a whisky investment he can not remember the bottle but said it tasted awful to a six year old even though his grandparents went mad as the bottle was worth around a grand. That was twenty years ago so I can only imagine its value now.

I do have some bottles that I'm keeping for posterity rather than drinking. Mainly BTAC bourbon, limited edition bourbon and Japanese age statement. However, it's worth considering that whisky prices are at an all time high. Bourbon is being driven by American demand and Japanese and Scotch prices are being driven by Chinese buyers of the high priced stuff. So the question is, given there will likely be a further slowing down of the Chinese economy, will this last or will the bubble burst?

My own feeling is that there are now enough Chinese middle classes to sustain this interest in whisky so I think prices are going to stay high for many years to come.

@MuddyFunster

Personally if I could get my hands on BTAC on the primary market (i.e. LCBO inflated prices are still reasonable for these) I would open it with like-minded friends. There's not enough of it around up here to keep for posterity.

@Nozinan the prices here for BTAC products are more than double what they are in North America. I'm unsure myself what to do with my BTAC bottles. I probably will drink them in due course but there is a worry that I'll never get the opportunity to purchase BTÀC again in the future.

In UK BTAC is easier to get but double the retail price of US. However considering the secondary market prices that's still a good deal.

@MuddyFunster I certainly don't think they're easier to get. We just got a bit of luck with a few bottles this year. There's no guarantee that we'll be able to get anymore in the future..