Whisky Barrel/Cask Investment in Scotland

whiskybroker.co.uk/index_files/…

This guy recently put did a cask for a group of bloggers on twitter (think it was An Cnoc) the cask are stored a Bladnoch (his dad). I have not used him but might be a starting point as prices are listed, also ask which casks he will be getting in if you don't see what you want.

You should check out the Glengoyne website - they offer casks for sale.

@FakeDamienHirst, if I were looking to buy a cask/barrel of whisk(e)y, I would be establishing a personal relationship with the distilleries, and not looking online. And I would most certainly be tasting the cask before deciding to buy it.

@Victor Think the OP is talking about new make spirit so tasting before is not really an option although visiting your cask at the distillery each year would be nice.

When i looked into it the following were taking orders

Isle of Arran, Isle of Barra, Glengoyne, Bladnoch, Glenglassaugh, Tullibardine, Kingbarns(not yet built), Bruichladdich and Kilchoman The last two definitely don't take orders any more but you would need to check with the rest.

This is handy tool www.whiskywhiskywhisky.com/calculator.php.

Do you plan to sell the cask, bottle then sell or drink it?

Just checking back Whisky broker had on offer for that group of bloggers Balblair, Longmorn, Tomatin and Arran. It was to be bottled when 75% of the group thought it was ready. One of the issuse was the cost of extra samples from the cask. might be worth checking.

As one of the bloggers involved in the whole cask share thing mentioned above here's some advice I'd give about investing in a group is to make sure that you all have the same idea of what you want at the beginning:

When do you want to bottle it? How do you want to decide that? How often do you want to draw samples to check the spirit? (that costs a chunk due to duty as well as the effort of locating the cask and drawing spirit) What do you do if someone drops out for some reason during the time the cask is maturing/when the cask is mature? What picture do you want on your label? :)

...and make sure you group isn't so big that it gets difficult to work out what's going on.

Also remember that there are a lot more costs involved than just the cask and storage - the cask calculators mentioned above are a good start, but have a chat with Martin at Whisky Broker and he'll fill you in on the rest.

I should probably find out what's going on with #groupcask, I don't even know if we found a barrel yet...

Hard to make money from casks as there is a limited resale market, but plenty of interest in rare bottles. Check out the Malt Whisky Investment & Enjoyment guide by Michael Ross on kindle.

@Drmjrossmba

I guess it depends on your definition of "Invest". If you're looking to sell and make money, there are easier ways (unless you're an independent bottler by trade.

If you're looking to DRINK (ie: investing in your future enjoyment), you'd better really like the distillery because there will a lot of bottles. The Bladnoch website actually discussed this in very good detail. Not sure if it's still accessible given the "troubles". A whole cask gives you some interesting options:

• You can go in as a club (if it's big enough) or a group of friends and then have a nice supply to drink or gift in the future.

• You can decide how long to mature (even going over to test the cask if you want) or leave it up to the distillery to determine based on negotiated guidelines.

• You can decide the shape, volume and decoration on the bottles.

• you can control the ABV from cask strength down...

Personally, I would have liked to own part of a cask of Bladnoch- IF I could have afforded it - and if it had been available in unpeated sherry cask maturation. But given that their bottlings were near cask strength and often single cask expressions, I will have to live with what I have left...

@Nozinan fair shout. Having a share on a barrel is really more of an emotional investment, being able to pop up to the distilllery, and spread round the bottles as a cracking wee present for family friends and work colleagues. But a lot of costs eg samples, storage past ten years, transport to a bottler offsite etc, some of which is hard to predict. If you fancy heading out of Scotland I noticed thoran in Iceland are setting up. Needless to say they would have a unique product which might take off worldwide. Otherwise track down Simon Harris at Isle of Harris distillers, they are still taking orders at 2500 a cask for ten years.

One more to add to the list is Strathearn Distillery: www.strathearndistillery.com/cask-purchase (I believe they even allow you to fill your cask at the distillery. I would not yet buy a cask from a distillery that hasn't been build yet or that hasn't started its production. Either those projects never take off like the Ladybank distillery and you'll loose your money. Or you risk getting a bad cask from the first batch, as it normally could take the distillers to get used to the new equipment and bring their recipe to perfection. Go with a distillery that you already know and familiarise yourself with their style and their expressions.

Maybe you could also try the Tamdhu distillery. Ian McLeod Distillers offers casks at Glengoyne, they might do the same at their new distillery.

The Belgian Owl distillery is currently also offering casks for sale or to share for whisky that they will distill with the stills from the former Caperdonich distillery (so that would make it a semi-Scottish whisky): belgianwhisky.com/en/…

Guys - I'm new to this but looking for a mature cask to bottle with friends. If anyone knows of a 15 yo + please lets know - happy to share some in return

@smartapps As the thread above says - speak to Martin at WhiskyBroker.co.uk. It's going to cost quite a lot...