This article counts down the ten most collected whiskies on Whiskystats. You won’t believe which releases made it to the top. Or maybe you do because some of them are pretty obvious. 

Everybody loves top ten countdowns and catchy headlines, so it is about time Whiskystats jumps on that train. Below, we look at what bottles Whiskystats users put into their collections most often. Unsurprisingly, these releases also belong to the most traded whiskies on the secondary market.

The price charts below are also a great display of how inefficient the auction market can be. This means that we observe significant differences in prices across the several platforms we track, even for these regularly traded and widely collected releases. On the other side, this inefficiency is also an excellent opportunity for the informed market participant.

Place 9 & 10: Glendronach

The tenth most collected whisky among the more than 66 thousand entries in our database is the Glendronach 15yo Revival (Old Style). Old Style here means the pre-2015 edition, matured in oloroso sherry casks only. Once available for less than 40 Euros, the Revival saw prices climbing to more than 200 Euros by mid-2018. That price increase stopped, though. It seems like nobody is sure what the price for this whisky should be. Prices bounce back and forth between 100 and 150 Euros.
Also from Glendronach comes the ninth most collected whisky on our platform, the Glendronach 21yo Parliament. Since this Highland single malt appeared on auctions for the first time in 2013, prices only increased modestly. The latest auction results from February 2020 all lie in the range of 120 to 160 Euros.

Place 6 to 8: Islay South Coast

The first Ardbeg on our list comes in at place eight. The Ardbeg Dark Cove (Committee Release) recently jumped above 300 Euros per bottle. In the February round of auctions, prices ranged from 230 to 350 Euros. This difference equals roughly a third of the price, so there is huge potential to save money when going for this 2016 Ardbeg release.

The same is true for the Laphroaig 18yo displayed below. Most of the trades we observed over the last year lie between 100 and 150 Euros. But on some occasions, the winning bids exceeded the 150 Euros and even the 200 Euros threshold. These trades probably favour many collectors as this Laphroaig takes place seven on our most collected list.

The Ardbeg Galileo rounds off this trio from the south coast of Islay. Current prices for the sixth most collected whisky come in at around 200 Euros. Thereby the price range is not as extreme as we have seen above. The latest trades varied between 180 and 230 Euros, although we have seen single months where the price tag went as high as 250 Euros on average.

Place 4 & 5: Yamazaki

We now leave Scotland for two Japanese releases within the Top 5 most collected whiskies. The Yamazaki 18yo has the most impressive price history on this list. From 2011 to 2014, this single malt was available for around 100 Euros. Then the Japanese Whisky Boom set in, and prices quickly climbed to 400 Euros. At this level, they remained until early 2018. Then, within a year, we saw another 50% increase, and nowadays you probably need to pay around 600 Euros for one of the remaining bottles.
Not quite as impressive but still gaining value is the Yamazaki 12yo. The overall fourth most collected whisky currently fetches 140 Euros on auctions. In late 2018, this now discontinued Yamazaki release reached almost 200 Euros in several rounds of auctions. By the way, even last month, in February 2020, some single lots went as high as 200 Euros.

Place 3: Ardbeg Auriverdes

We now enter the podium of our ranking. The overall third most collected whisky on the market is the Ardbeg Auriverdes. Apart from the initial spike, which we observe for many anticipated releases, prices for this Ardbeg never really moved much. Over the last four years, the Auriverdes was constantly available for around 100 Euros on auctions.
We see many prices go as low as 80 Euros regularly, making the occasional bids for 130 or above even more questionable. A little patience and a Whiskystats membership could have saved some money there. By the way, the Auriverdes Gold Edition is currently trading for around 1.300 Euros.

Place 2: Ardbeg Perpetuum

Quite fittingly, the silver medal of our ranking is going to the silver labelled Ardbeg Perpetuum. Again we see the typical spike in prices right after the release. Our best guess is that some people with deep enough pockets cannot wait to get their hands on these new releases, no matter the price. Also, for the Perpetuum, prices never really moved much once they settled in at a level of around 100 Euros, except for the last two months. Here we saw a little upward movement, and it remains to be shown if this is substantial or just a temporary deviation.

About the same is true for the Ardbeg Perpetuum (Distillery Release). After the initial spike, prices quickly dropped to around 100 to 150 Euros and have remained there ever since. The latest results range between 160 and 190 Euros across all platforms. So it seems like the market’s opinion about this 2015 release is relatively uniform.

Place 1: Lagavulin 8yo 200th Anniversary

And then we come to the single most collected whisky on Whiskystats. Yet again, it is a single malt from the South Coast of the Isle of Islay. The Lagavulin 8yo 200th Anniversary release experienced a similar price history as the above Ardbegs. Shortly after the release, prices went far and beyond when considering the official retail price. But soon, the bids dropped to a more reasonable range and did not move away from there ever since. We are currently standing at around 50 Euros, and it seems like prices won’t leave that level anytime soon.

For everyone following the secondary market, it is probably of no surprise that the Isle of Islay is dominating this list. Six out of the ten most collected whiskies come from an Islay distillery and three from Ardbeg. So from a collector’s point of view, it seems like Ardbeg relates to Islay as Islay relates to the overall market, a true collector’s favourite.

Disclaimer: the whisky market insights presented in this article are based on the Whiskystats database at the time of publication. Whiskystats is constantly adding new data, and therefore some charts and figures may not match after initial publication.