The heat is back on the secondary whisky market. Prices for collectable Springbank and Bruichladdich continue to climb while our Whiskystats Whisky Index exceeds 300 points. Here is the Whiskystats Price Update for July 2021.
With the July 2021 update, we now count more than 80 thousand different whisky bottles in our database. Around 6,3 thousand of them experienced a price change as we processed this latest round of auctions. And what a round it was. The 500 historically most traded whiskies gained no less than 5,8%, and hence our Whiskystats Whisky Index now stands at 303 index points. This marks the first time our primary market index breaks through the 300 points threshold, tripling since its debut in December 2012. We might see a continuation of the Winter 20/21 Sprint, which we identified in our May 2021 Price Update.
To shed some light on these abstract figures, let us take a look at a couple of the whiskies that drove this record-breaking index movement. There is, for example, the Brora 30yo 2010 Release, which is now trading for a not so humble 1.800 Euros. The Macallan Royal Wedding 2011 fetched almost 4.800 Euros, a staggering 800 Euros above its last peak in January 2018. With 2.200 Euros, the Clynelish 17yo Manager’s Dram from 1998 was almost tenfold its first price observation from April 2011. And on we go with new record prices for the Linkwood 23yo (1974) Rare Malts, the Ardbeg Very Young (Committee Release), a pretty mad 1.250 Euros for the Octomore 7yo Feis Ile 2014 and many, many more.
Springbank & Bruichladdich
Today we want to spotlight Springbank and Bruichladdich among the many value-gaining distilleries in our distillery ranking. Over the past 20 or so months, we have observed constant and severe value gains for collectable whiskies from these distilleries. Since November 2019, our Springbank index, driven by the historically 100 most traded Springbanks each month (including their subbrands Hazelburn and Longrow), gained a whopping 45%. Over the same time, our Bruichladdich index (which also summons Octomore and Port Charlotte) made 66%, although from a lower starting level. This makes Springbank and Bruichladdich one of the hottest brands on the secondary whisky market at the moment.
Needless to say that we will back these claims with some examples. Take this old-style Springbank 21yo (approximately from the 1990s), which initially traded for around 300 Euros in 2011. This whisky has been available for about 800 Euros for quite some time. Not anymore it seems, as it now came in at 2.300 Euros. Or the below displayed Springbank Single Cask 789 originally bottled for Oddbins. In 2018 some of these 475 bottles regularly changed owners for around 130 Euros. Then in 2020 prices climbed to 250 and then 350 Euros. It now arrived at over 500 Euros and thereby perfectly mimics the performance of our Springbank index.
Besides the above mentioned Octomore 7yo Feis Ile 2014, for Bruichladdich, we have to point out the Bruichladdich Black Art High Noon (Feis Ile 2015) achieved an impressive 2.300 Euros last month. At the same time, the Valinch 10 (Sean Gordon) confirmed its 400 Euros price tag at ScotchWhiskyAuctions.com. In addition, the Valinch 36 (Gordon McDougall) sold for 280 Euros at WhiskyAuctioneer.com, while it only achieved 100 Euros at ScotchWhiskyAuctions.com in June. For the Octomore 8.2 (Masterclass), prices vary from 200 to 300 Euros, a new record too.
Remarkable Trades
Already a lot of highlight trades, but we can not help ourselves. We have to mention some more. The Blanton’s Single Barrel 166 appeared on auctions again after until now; it only was sold once in January 2011 for 70 Euros. It now made 5.100 Euros which equals a 7.138% increase in value. The Tamnavulin 25yo (1989) Director’s Cut from Douglas Laing gained 700% since February 2016 as the hammer fell to almost 1.000 Euros. To complete the top three value gainers of this month, the Glenrothes SMWS 30.97, which made 430% since February 2021, is displayed below.
All in all, a very entertaining round of auctions we saw here. Do not also forget to check the value of your whisky collections which you can 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.