INVESTMENTS in rare whisky have hit record levels in the UK with more than £6 million spent at auction in the second quarter of the year.

The total of 21,617 bottles is 71 per cent higher than the same period last year, when 12,638 bottles were sold, according to data from whisky analyst and broker Rare Whisky 101.

An increasing number of ‘professional investors’ are turning to whisky, according to David Robertson, co-founder of Rare Whisky 101, in addition to collectors and connoisseurs.

Mr Robertson said fresh investment from North America and Asia, and an increase in investment funds being set up as vehicles to invest in Scotch, are driving value and volume.

“We speak to a number of auction houses, and they are seeing lots of new entrants coming to the market from North America and Asia,” he said. “From our perspective we’re seeing more professional investment-minded people who are working with us and asking us to source collections on their behalf, which they might want to tuck away in a warehouse along with their fine wine collection.”

These investors have helped spend £6.18m on rare whisky at auction, compared to £2.80m in the same period in 2016, an increase of 121 per cent.

The average bottle cost of £268 was also record-breaking and auction houses can sell up to 6,000 bottles per month.

Mr Robertson and his business partner Andy Simpson set up Rare Whisky 101 in 2014 to offer a whisky valuation service, brokerage and consultancy.

To date, its biggest deal was brokering the sale of two bottles of 60 year-old Scotch whisky for £300,000.

“In the mid 2000s, even 2010, it was inconceivable that someone would spend more than £10,000 on a bottle,” said Mr Robertson.

He said current growth numbers were “crazy”, adding: “When we launched [in 2014], we did projections as to where the auction market would be, and we under-called the market. We didn’t expect or forecast it would be as voluminous and how much the values have increased on a lot of bottles.”

Mr Robertson also noted that an increasing number of investment funds are being established to buy into the rare whisky market. One such fund is the Hong Kong-based Platinum Whisky Investment Fund, set up in February 2016 by fine wine merchant Rickesh Kishnani. It has attracted $10m in funding from 40 private investors committing $250,000 each.

“It’s becoming a bit more sophisticated,” he said, adding that this is an area which could “put upward pressure on prices, as there will be more people wanting more whisky”.

For now, the figures underline the continued trend of value growth exceeding volume growth.

In June alone, Rare Whisky 101 noted a 54 per cent increase in volume and a 94 per cent increase in value of auction sales, compared to June last year.

The majority of sales come through online platforms, with Mr Simpson noting: “The growing popularity of online auctions, combined with recent moves by traditional rare whisky retailers to set up their own auction sites, continues to drive demand.

“By joining the secondary market sector, these bricks and mortar retailers have finally realised that they can’t afford to lose rare whisky customers to the auction market.”

Mr Robertson said another new line of business for the company was sourcing aged barrels for investors – a single barrel, he said, could sell for “many hundreds of thousands” of pounds.

“Until fairly recently everything we did was in bottles, but more people are looking for casks,” he said. “Some investors want it bottled there and then so they’ve got 247 bottles, and others want to buy it as a 32 year-old but will hold until it is 40 and bottle it.”

The interest in rare whiskies is also leading producers to launch more limited products, he added.