Our Whiskystats Whisky Index reaches another all-time peak. The Feis Ile 2019 releases are hitting the market while Speyside is closing the gap with Islay. Meanwhile, a Japanese blend is the most traded whisky of the month.
As WhiskyAuction.com is taking its traditional summer break, the ten thousand trades we observed this month come solely from the UK-based auctioneers. Around 5.400 different whiskies in our database experienced a price change. After a minor setback in June, our major market index, the Whiskystats Whisky Index (WWI), gained 4% at 217 index points. Following May 2019 and October 2018, this marks the next all-time peak of the WWI.
In our monthly price updates, we witness how the most traded Islay bottlings gained strength over the last year. Especially from November 2018 to May 2019, our respective region index climbed by almost 25%. These movements stood out as Islay overtook Speyside in our scotch region ranking. However, in July 2019, while our Islay index remained at around 242 index points, the 100 most traded Speyside releases gained more than 5%. This saw the gap between these two major scotch whisky regions shrink to as little as five points.
This, of course, is strongly dependent on the performance of Macallan. Unsurprisingly, the 100 most traded Macallan releases gained 6% in July. Together with Yoichi, this is the most robust performance among the Top 10 in our monthly updated distillery ranking. Other top-ranked distilleries which gained strongly this month are Hanyu, Bowmore, Aberlour and Springbank. In the deep reds are Port Ellen, Dalmore and Clynelish.
Feis Ile 2019
Each year, the Feis Ile festival takes place on Islay at the end of May. For this occasion, all the distilleries issue special releases. Then, many of those whiskies find their way to the auction platforms we track in the consecutive months. You can find those bottlings by searching for “Feis Ile YYYY” in our database. For a whisky to be displayed in our database we require trades in two different rounds of auctions. So now, two rounds of auctions after the Feis Ile 2019 took place, the first bottles appear on Whiskystats.
By August 2019, we will find eighteen different Feis Ile 2019 releases in our database. The most expensive one is the Bowmore 22yo (1997) Devils Cask 666. The two trades we observed in July averaged 2019 Euros. The above displayed Lagavulin 19yo Cask Strength is one of the most traded Feis Ile 2019 releases so far. We observed no less than 83 bottles sold on auctions in the last two months. With 103 price observations within two months, the Bowmore 15yo Bourbon Casks is the overall most traded release of this year’s Feis Ile. Prices average around 120 Euros at the moment.
Remarkable Trades
The most-traded whisky of July 2019 is the Hibiki 21yo Mount Fuji. The fifty trades we observed averaged to around 700 Euros. It was only a little more than a year ago, in April 2018, when this Japanese blend sold for 600 Euros or less on a regular basis. Then, suddenly, prices skyrocketed to 1000 Euros and above between May and September 2018. Now it seems like they have levelled at around 700 to 800 Euros.
Other heavily traded whiskies of July 2019 are the Yamazaki 18yo (49 trades), the Macallan Aera (46 trades) and the Clynelish Game of Thrones (46 trades). The top value gainer of July 2019 is the Glenmorangie 10yo (1991) Cask Strength release. The last time we saw this Highland whisky was in October 2016, when it sold for 150 Euros. Almost three years later, a bidder at ScotchWhiskyAuctions.com paid more than 1.200 Euros.
Also, keep in mind to recheck the latest changes in the value of your personal whisky collections you track on Whiskystats.
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.