Forbes reported on Sunday that Bunnahabhain, a distillery with 144 years of history, is offering a cask investment program. This marks the first time an established distillery is offering a cask investment program in decades, the outlet reported.
Bunnahabain shared that interested parties can purchase casks in three different types and pricing tiers. The least expensive option is a 200-liter first-fill ex-bourbon barrel for $7,549. The price jumps up to $9,000 for a slightly larger 250-liter refill hogshead. Though the distillery doesn’t report what type of cask, Forbes claims it might be an ex-bourbon cask. The most expensive option is an $18,000 500-liter Oloroso Sherry Butt.
“A single cask programme has been in our sights for some time, and we wanted to make sure that we had a special offering for whisky lovers worldwide,” shared Master Blender Julieann Fernandez in a press release from Bunnahabain. “Traditionally, Bunnahabhain is celebrated for its unpeated single malts, so the opportunity to own a cask of Bunnahabhain or Staoisha new-make spirit is really quite rare.”
Bunnahabhain is additionally offering casks of Staoisha, another label that focuses on peated single malts under the same distillery. The brand shared on its socials that this was the first time it would offer whisky fans access to Staoisha. With all that in mind, the timing appears to be interesting, considering the downward trends in the scotch whisky marketplace.
In July, Edrington, the parent company behind the major scotch power player The Macallan, reported profits dropped by 26%. Other brands like William Grant & Sons, known for the popular scotch whisky brand Glenfiddich, reported similar numbers. The company cited an even larger 30% profit slump.
Bunnahabhain’s decision to offer a cask investment program might be a strategic one to improve the financial outlook at the distillery — especially during such uncertain times. At the moment, Bunnahabbhain seems to be the only major scotch whisky brand offering a cask investment program. Perhaps other distilleries will follow suit.
Is Bunnahabhain’s Move an Answer to an Industry-Wide Problem?
Though cask investment is nothing new, the fact that an established distillery is offering the opportunity to purchase casks is relatively novel — at least within the last few decades. In the most recent years, major players within the whisky cask market were secondary brokers, some of whom had stodgy reputations. Some were downright fraudulent.
In March, the BBC wrote an exposé on a fraudulent cask investment firm where many investors lost their life savings. One woman with terminal cancer put up the equivalent of $98,632 and lost every penny. The watershed moment highlighted the problems within the speculative market and led to cries for action. Experts claimed there needed to be some form of regulatory measures to ensure the provenance of the casks.
Though experts like our very own Jay West (T8ke) expressed that now was “exactly the wrong time to be investing in casks,” investing in a reputable distillery like Bunnahabhain might be an answer for those interested in expanding their portfolio. West recommended working with someone who had a “strong track record” that could be met in person.
West expressed that he believed Bunahhabain’s move was a smart one for the whisky brand, because it lends an air of legitimacy and offers buyers peace of mind.
“Most cask investment companies are not quite 100% legit and also promise a huge return on casks not made by iconic scotch distilleries,” West explained. “So this is likely to outperform them really well with some security as well, because it’s coming from a very legitimate distillery itself.”
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