Hanyu and Karuizawa swap places again. Our Islay index gained strongly while Speyside keeps struggling and some old Springbanks reappeared on the market. Here is our first Price Update of the decade.
Note that we assigned the WhiskyAuction.com 2020-01 (held in January) and the 2020-02 (held last weekend) auctions to January 2020. With this, the upcoming rounds align with those from the U.K. auctioneers. In total, we observed almost 15 thousand trades last month. More than 8 thousand different bottles were affected by a price change.
The 500 historically most traded whiskies gained 2,8% in value last month, as depicted by the Whiskystats Whisky Index (WWI). This is the first upward movement we have witnessed since July 2019. The index jumped above 200 points again, which it did for the first time in July 2018. Since then, the WWI seems trapped in a sideward movement.
Islay Comeback
In the six months between November 2018 and May 2019, our Islay index gained an astonishing 25%. In May 2019 alone, the value of the 100 most traded Islay bottlings increased by 6%. However, our Islay index lost more than 21% again in the seven months that followed. In December 2019, the index was below its November 2018 value. And now, in January 2020, we see that the index jumped up by 8% again, so what happened?
We compared the Islay index to the top three Islay distilleries in the chart above, according to our distillery ranking. We notice that all three distilleries experienced the same upward movement in January. Bowmore and Ardbeg both gained more than 1%, while Port Ellen made 3,6% last month. The Bowmore Voyage drove the Bowmore index this month. It traded for more than 500 Euros for the first time. The volatile Ardbeg Serendipity jumped up again as it sold for 231 Euros. The Port Ellen 20yo (1978) Rare Malts also recovered. In October and November last year, this whisky traded for around 800 Euros. It now changed ownership for more than 1.100 Euros.
Springbank Comebacks
When we looked for some remarkable trades this month, we stumbled upon many Springbank releases. Some of these have not been seen on auctions for a long time. There is, for example, the Springbank 10yo (1972) from Cask 206. This 1982 release was always an expensive bottle. Back in 2013 and 2014, it sold for 700 and 900 Euros, respectively. Then it disappeared from the auction platforms we tracked for almost six years. However, it just sold for 5.700 Euros on WhiskyAuctioneer.com. This equals a roughly 540% increase in value over the five and a half years.
But that is not the only Springbank to celebrate a comeback this month. The Springbank 33yo (1966) from Cask 508 disappeared from auctions for six and half years. It now just sold for almost 4,700 Euros. Even more time has passed since we last saw the Springbank 31yo (1967) from independent bottler Alte Tabakstube. This Campbeltown single malt sold for 460 Euros back in March 2011. It now fetched more than 2.200 Euros at WhiskyAuction.com.
So how did the prices for your personal collection change in January 2020? Find out and become a Whiskystats Member for free.
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.