Why Is whisky an excellent alternative investment?
The Scotch whisky industry is one of the wonders of the world and the product it makes is one of the world’s most enduring success stories. Distilling took place 500 years ago most likely in Ireland and Irish whisky has a glorious past without a doubt. However, whisky distilling took an organised industrial scale development during the 19th century and over 100 distilleries were fully operational in Scotland and many in Ireland. A fascinating market the whisky market develops and its stories are some of the most intriguing ever told for a trading market.
Overall the whisky market, like many other markets works in cycles and over the years it has seen many ups and downs. Over the last two centuries the whisky production and trade has been significantly affected and disrupted by the world wars and global recessions. Additionally the American alcohol prohibition played its role in the exports of Scotch and Irish whisky to the U.S. as this has always been one of the strongest whisky markets worldwide. Having documented extremely well the above, one thing that remains certain is that Scotch whisky blended or single malt has dominated the world whisky markets despite fierce competition from other liquors or whiskies now produced by several other countries including Japan.
As we are well into the 21st century a new rather Golden Era is embarking for whisky as an investment asset. The rarity of old and rare whisky is multi factorial and one most certainly has to acknowledge the fact that dozens of whisky distilleries closed down in various periods of the 20th century and even in its second half in the 70s and 80s. Subsequently rare to find whisky from those closed distilleries such as Brora and Port Ellen achieves phenomenal prices in auctions.
Furthermore there is very limited amount of whisky bottled in really old ages of over 10 years in the past, as there was no demand for that kind of rare whisky in the previous decades. The vast majority of whisky produced by distilleries was used for blended whisky brands such as Johny Walker or Dewars at a very young age, but always over 3 years old. Interestingly there is a very small rare number of whisky in casks from the 70s and even 80s of the 20th century. In addition the demand for rare collectable and limited edition whisky has rocketed. Hence the prices of rare collectable whisky are achieving phenomenal growth in auctions. You have limited single cask bottles eg from Macallan or Bowmore that have increased 3 times in value within 24 months. Of paramount importance is the fact that as we will see in the price analysis that follows it is exceptionally rare (have not seen it to the best of my knowledge) to experience significant corrections in a rare collectible bottle to the day.
Interestingly, currently there is an extremely limited number of whisky casks in Scotland and elsewhere from the early 1970s and as a matter of fact the distilleries increased their whisky production in the second half of the first decade of the 21st century. The above generates further competition from whisky collectors and investors that grow massively in numbers worldwide and subsequently drive the old and rare whisky further up.
The whisky funds era is real and it is happening now; as paradoxically we see the crypto currencies mania to fade away…… companies such as Fah Mai Holdings are developing a public USA stock market (OTC) floated enterprise that is going to develop one of the world’s finest collections. Additionally other investment funds like a Swedish one and the platinum whisky fund in Hong Kong with a minimum entry of $250.000 have demonstrated a very desirable strength and growth.
Trade Whisky will be an answer to any investor with even very little initial capital, who can aim for remarkable growth and returns. Join Trade Whisky Platinum Membership now on www.tradewhisky.co.uk.