Our Speyside and Islay indices continue to perform extraordinarily well. Some independent bottlings realized maximum value gains, too, while the Arrrrrrrdbeg is the most traded whisky of the month. Here is the Whiskystats Price Update for April 2021.
The 17 thousand new price observations from April brought no change to the overall upward trend we have been witnessing for a couple of months now. Our primary market indices, the WWI and the Fab50 are deep in the greens. WWI is slowly approaching the 300 index points as April 2021 was the fifth consecutive month without any index losses. At the same time, our fabulous fifty single malts are worth almost 150 thousand Euros. Needless to say that this marks a new record too.
Our region indices displayed above clearly indicate from where the gains are coming. The historically most traded Islay whiskies gained 4,5%, those from the Lowlands 4,8%, and the most traded Speyside whiskies gained a staggering 5,9% within a single round of auctions. This separates our Islay and Speyside indices even more from the Highlands. At the same time, the Lowlands fought back against Campbeltown to reclaim place four among these Scotch whisky regions. And then our Japan index increased by 2,2% too and now stands at 799 index points. If you are looking for the best performing whisky market segment of all time, look no further. Since the climax of the Japanese Whisky Boom in 2015, our Japan index has doubled yet again.
Value Gainers
When we look at the top value gainers of this month, we see that Independent bottlers released most of the top spots. The Rosebank 25.40 from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society was last seen at auction in April 2013. It sold for 150 Euros back then, whereas now the price is 1.150 Euros, equalling almost 700%. An Ardbeg 15yo (1975) bottled by Samaroli sold for 6.600 Euros realizing a 630% gain since February 2015. The Bowmore 23yo (1982) Cask 85014 from Duncan Taylor fetched 560 Euros too after last auctioned in 2013 for 100 Euros.
While the above mentioned missing from the market for a long time, the Inchgower 28yo (1985) Stamps by The Whisky Agency was last traded in January 2020. But that certainly did not keep it from gaining some significant value. The 830 Euros paid now equals a 400% increase in value in little more than a year. But the list doesn’t stop here. Also from The Whisky Exchange, this Glenallachie from 1974 achieved 900 Euros. And what happened to the Macallan 12yo (1993) Provenance from Douglas McGibbon can probably be best described as an “outlier”. With 2.800 Euros, the Macallan 25yo (1954) from Gordon & MacPhail is the most expensive expression on this list. Before this round of auctions, our last price point was 670 Euros and came from August 2013.
Most Traded
Looking at the most traded whiskies of the month, we see many familiar faces and some unexpected ones. On top of this list is the Ardbeg Arrrrrrrdbeg! (Committee Release) which is currently selling for 260 Euros. There is, of course, quite some price variability, as we can see in the below chart. But we wouldn’t expect anything else from this sort of release by now. Among these most liquid liquids on the market, there are, of course, some Macallans too. The Macallan Edition No.3 now stands at 225 Euros on average, while the Macallan Edition No.6 comes in at 185 Euros.
More of a surprise is that the Glenlivet 13yo (2006) The Un-Chillfiltered Collection by Signatory Vintage made it to this list. The 81 bottles sold both at ScotchWhiskyAuctions.com and WhiskyAuctioneer.com mean it is the third most traded whisky this month. Interestingly, because there were only 612 bottles from cask 901005, many of these have been auctioned off now. And last but not least, the most expensive heavily traded whisky is the Macallan Peter Blake Gift Box. The 78 prices averaged 2.900 Euros per bottle.
Each month, we close this update with a gentle reminder to check the latest value of your personal collection.
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.