Pushed by Ardbeg and Bowmore, the whisky region of Islay continues its strong performance. Our major market index reaches a new all-time peak. Meanwhile, Yamazaki and Game of Thrones dominate the list of the most traded whiskies of the month.
In May 2019, we observed 11.800 bottles of whisky changing ownership. Almost 6.500 whiskies in our database experienced a price change this month. The 462 Euros per bottle paid on average is the highest value we have ever witnessed. Likewise, our Whiskystats Whisky Index (WWI) reached 212,5 index points, marking a new record.
The WWI summarizes the change in value of the 500 historically most traded whiskies each month. In October 2018, this market index reached its last peak at 211 points. It then lost 6,7% within three months and even dropped below the 200 index points threshold. An increase of +5% in February and now +2,2% in May resulted in a strong comeback.
Remarkable Islay
When you follow our monthly price updates, you will know that Islay whiskies are experiencing significant value increases. When we compare our scotch region indices, we see that our Islay region index overtook its Speyside counterpart in February this year. With more than 250 index points, Islay separates itself from Speyside, which is slowed down mainly by the stabilizing Macallan prices.
We now want to compare the nine distilleries contributing to our Islay index to dig deeper. And here we get a lovely picture of what is going on on the market. While in the years between 2014 to 2017, Port Ellen experienced the highest gains in value, it now looks like the focus has shifted to Bowmore and Ardbeg.
The most-traded Bowmore releases gained massively from early 2017 to mid-2018. Then followed what looks like a reasonable market correction as prices seemed to stabilize. At the same time, we also observed high value increases for the most traded Ardbegs. Over the last two years, since May 2017, our Ardbeg index has gained almost 55%.
Remarkable Trades
And finally, we also want to point out some very remarkable trades. As mentioned, Yamazaki and the Game of Thrones collection accounted for the most traded whiskies of this month. The Clynelish Game of Thrones (House Tyrell) edition was traded 82 times, with prices averaging 108 Euros. The Yamazaki 12yo and the Yamazaki 18yo complete the podium of the most traded bottles. It seems like prices for the Yamazaki 12yo levelled in at around 120 Euros again after reaching almost 200 Euros only a couple of months ago.
The Springbank 28yo (1967) is one of the top value gainers of this month. The last price observation for this Campbeltown single malt was 482 Euros in October 2013. This whisky just traded for more than 2.200 Euros realizing a 370% increase in value. We haven´t seen the Glenfarclas 38yo (1964) Old Malt Cask release for a long time. One of the once existing 342 bottles now trades for 950 Euros.
But not all whiskies gained in value. The Kilkerran 12yo Campbeltown Dinner release traded for 1.300 Euros back in January 2018 and is now selling for 430 Euros. The Jim Beam Gold Label dropped from 160 Euros in March 2019 to 35 Euros. The same is true for the Tullibardine 8yo (2007) Cooper´s Choice, which once traded for 160 Euros and now sells for around 40 Euros.
Do not forget to check how the value of your personal whisky collections changed this month.
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.