While Aberlour, Benromach, and Glendronach maintained their price stability in the November round of auctions, Rosebank, and Yamazaki continued to trail behind the overall market. Here is the Whiskystats Price Update for November 2024.
Around 27 thousand bottles of whisky were traded at Whiskystats tracked auctions in November. Compared to October, the trading volume is down by almost 8% and more than 10% short of the November 2023 figures. With 1,920 unsold bottles, the share of lots that did not meet their reserve price was 7.1%, the highest figure in the past two years. It seems that price expectations clearly overestimated current market demand.
Over- and Underperformance
The 500 historically most traded whiskies lost 2.3% of their market value in the November round of auctions. This small setback kept the Whiskystats Whisky Index in its sideward movement, as it has now dropped back to its November 2023 level. Over the past 12 months, the Whiskystats Whisky Index has lost 2%.
One of the best-performing brands on the secondary whisky market over the past year was Aberlour, with a year-on-year index gain of 10.1%. While the 2022 peak was more pronounced in the overall market, auction prices for Aberlour remained far more stable. The same is true for Benromach, which saw auction prices climb by 10.4% since May 2024. Glendronach overperformed the overall market with an index gain of more than 50% over the past five years, compared to the 16% gain of the Whiskystats Whisky Index.
However, some of the top collectable whisky brands stand out as they underperformed the overall market. The Macallan auction price index has only increased 6% over the past five years. Yamazaki saw considerable gains in 2021 and 2022 but equally dramatic losses ever since, resulting in a five-year index drop of 3%. The most traded Rosebank releases lost another 4.5% in the November round of auctions, resulting in a 19% downturn compared to five years ago.
Price stable whiskies
Naturally, the question arises of which specific whiskies have maintained their secondary market value amidst the recent turmoil. One example is the below-displayed Auchentoshan 1966 Single Cask #508 release. This 31-year-old, rated 91 out of 100 points, usually appears at auctions every other year. But when it does, the hammer always falls above previous prices. On November 4 at Whisky Auctioneer UK, it fetched almost €1,000, including buyer fees.
Another price-stable single cask release is the Glengoyne 1969 Single Cask #4464. This 1998 distillery bottling just sold for €1,270, thereby confirming the price level from May 2021—an achievement also mirrored by the Glengonye 1969 Single Cask #3525 and the Glengoyne 1971 Single Cask #4678. To cite another example, the Glendronach 1972 Single Cask #706 realized €5,700 at Scotch Whisky Auctions in November, which is just shy of its all-time peak of €6,150 from September 2022.
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; therefore, some charts and figures may not match after initial publication.