THE value of rare Scotch whisky sold under auction has surged by 46 per cent to £16.3 million in the first half of the year, underlining the growing appeal of collectible single malt as an investment class, writes Scott Wright.
Rare Whisky 101 (R101), the whisky valuer and brokerage, said figures contained in its half-year report point to whisky auction sales exceeding £16m for a six-month period for the first time. Whisky sold at auction in the first half of last year totalled £11.2m.
According to R101, founded by Andy Simpson and David Robertson in 2014, the first-half tally this year came from the auction of 49,719 bottles of single malt whisky around the UK, up 27.3%. It declared the growing appeal of whisky among investors is illustrated by comparing figures for the opening six months of this year with the same period of 2013, when £2.2m of malt auction sales were generated from a total of 8,825 bottles.
The average price per bottle achieved at auction climbed to £328.56, up 14.8%.
R101 said Speyside malt The Macallan had reinforced its claim to be the secondary market leader, increasing its share of the total amount spent on rare whisky to 34.1%. That exceeded the combined share of the next nine brands, which totalled 31.3%.
R101 forecasts that more than 100,000 bottles will be sold under auction during the whole of 2018, at a value in excess of £36m.
Mr Simpson said: “Scotch whisky as an asset has continued to perform extremely well within a volatile global economy. However, while we’re seeing an impressive increase in the number of bottles traded at auction, the increase in value is nothing short of phenomenal.
“The Macallan is the clear winner within this market. Some of the prices being paid for the distillery’s rarest and most iconic releases underline its star quality among investors, collectors and connoisseurs across the world.”
Mr Simpson, whose agency has tracked every bottle of whisky sold at auction over the last 12 years, added that R101 is “confident that the right bottles from the right distilleries will continue to offer a strong investment proposition.”
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