Hanyu drops down after six months of extraordinary growth. The Whiskystats Whisky Index loses again, but only slightly. Port Ellen struggles too, and we revisit the Game of Thrones releases. Here is our price update for November 2019.

Another fifteen thousand price observations found their way into our database in November 2019. Again the Macallan Edition No.5 is the most traded whisky of the month, followed by the Yamazaki 18yo and the Ardbeg Supernova (Committee Release 2019). Naturally, Macallan dominates the list of the most traded whisky brands with more than twelve hundred trades. At the same time, though, the Macallan index loses 0,5%. Since the end of the Macallan price rally in autumn 2018, this index lost roughly 19% to now stand at 285 index points. Macallan currently takes fifth place in our distillery ranking, more than 100 points short of the top three distilleries of Hanyu, Rosebank and Karuizawa.

The Whiskystats Whisky Index displayed above is red for the fourth consecutive month. The -0,7% this month sent it below the 200 points threshold, which it broke through for the first time in July 2018. Interestingly, the index movements of 2019 resemble those from 2018, where we also saw substantial gains until the middle, followed by significant losses towards the end of the year. It will be interesting to see if the upcoming round of auctions confirms this pattern or if the WWI continues to fall.
Again we use our region indices to confirm that all but one scotch whisky region index lost ground this month. The most-traded Speyside releases gained 1,2% in value, and our Japan index even went up by 2,5%. However, all other regions are in the reds at the same time. The 100 historically most traded Islay whiskies lost almost 5% in value in November 2019. Our Islay index now stands precisely at the same point as it did one year ago. From November 2018 to May 2019, it gained 25% and then lost these gains.

Port Ellen

One considerable driver of the Islay index movements is Port Ellen. While our Port Ellen index stayed fairly constant from March 2018 to February 2019, it then gained 6,7% within two months, only to lose 16% within the following seven months. In the latest round of auctions, the most traded Port Ellens lost 7% in value. We can compare the major silent scotch distilleries on the secondary whisky market to put this in perspective.
Obviously, Brora and St. Magdalene are struggling too. Brora dropped below 250 index points again, while St. Magdalene levelled at around 150 points. Only Rosebank continues to perform strongly as our index gained 2% this month. Combined with the significant loss of Hanyu, Rosebank is now only two index points shy of taking over the lead in our distillery ranking.

Game of Thrones

At last, we want to revisit the Game of Thrones releases Diageo issued at the beginning of this year. Upon release, these bottles gained some attention as stocks quickly sold out, and the hype was significant for the final Game of Thrones season. This led to some ridiculous auction prices. So what is the situation on the secondary market now after the hype has passed?
Well, things have calmed down. All releases are now available for around 50 Euros, with the Lagavulin House Lannister release being the most expensive one at 61 Euros. At the moment, the cheapest one is the Glendullan House Tully edition at 38 Euros. These editions regularly trade, with the Clynelish House Tyrell edition leading the pack with 621 different price observations. Quite astonishingly, it took five months until the prices for the House Tyrell levelled at 50 Euros. Upon release, the price went as high as 300 Euros.

So it seems like the market is in an exciting phase. Will the downward movements continue, or will 2020 turn things around again? In case you did not know, you can track the market and the value of your personal whisky collection by becoming a Whiskystats member.

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.