The latest round of auctions broke many records. In addition, Brora and Clynelish attracted some attention while Campbeltown closed the gap. This is the Whiskystats price update for October 2018.

Last month we observed 9.118 bottles of single malt whisky changing ownership and no less than 4,37 Mio. EUR were transferred. For comparison, in October 2017, we observed 8.500 trades for around 3,2 Mio. EUR. Never before have we observed so many trades and such a high trading volume within a single round of auctions.

By far, the most traded single malt was the Highland Park The Dolphins release. In October 2018 alone, 115 bottles were traded. The prices averaged to 64 EUR. However, the most expensive trades belong to the Macallan 50yo 2018 Release. At ScotchWhiskyAuction.com (SWA), this bottle reached 69.800 EUR and at WhiskyAuctioneer.com (WAE), 72.300 EUR.

WWI & Regions

So what about the historically 500 most traded single malts? They gained 1,6% in value, and consequently, our Whiskystats Whisky Index moved from 207,34 to 210,7 index points. Once again, this marks an all-time peak for our major secondary market index.

So how does this break down in regards to the regions we track? We determine the historically 100 most traded whiskies for each of these regions. The change in value of those bottlings then defines the index movements. To get the most out of these indices, please read the Whiskystats Indices article.

So what do we see? The historically 100 most traded Islay bottlings gained 3,8% in value, which brings our Islay index above its February 2018 peak. We see that the Lowlands and the Highlands are still battling for third place among the scotch whisky regions (from a whisky collector’s point of view). And we see that our Campbeltown index shows a pretty constant upward movement. From September 2017 to October 2018, it gained almost 26%, leaving the Islands well behind and aiming to break through the 150 point threshold.

Brora & Clynelish

Looking at our monthly updated distillery ranking, we see that there was not a lot of movement within the top ten distilleries except Port Ellen taking back position eight from Ardbeg. Further down the list, we see that the most traded Clynelish bottlings gained 13,4% in value last month. This brought Clynelish up two steps to 24 out of 76. And also, its sibling distillery Brora gained significantly as the value of the most traded Brora increased by 4,34%.

When we look at the indices of Brora and Clynelish side by side, we notice that both gained significantly during the last couple of months. Our Clynelish index went up by more than 30% from April to October. The same is true for Brora, where our index moved from 223 to 290 index points within the same six months period. To make these figures more accessible, we picked some of the whiskies that drive these indices.

Let’s begin with the Brora 30yo (1972) Old & Rare from Douglas Laing. The last trade in October 2017 was 3.000 EUR. This month the price tag reached 5.100 EUR. But that is not the only Brora which gained significant value this month. The Brora 30yo 2009 Release is now trading for more than 1.200 EUR. And there are the Brora 22yo (1972) and the Brora 21yo (1977) from the Rare Malts Selection series. These bottlings reached new record prices this month, trading for 8.100 EUR and 1.300 EUR, respectively. And what about Clynelish?

For Clynelish, we have another member of the Rare Malts Selection family driving the distillery’s index this month. The Clynelish 24yo (1972) more than doubled in price since January 2018, selling for over 1.600 EUR. Another example is the Clynelish 29yo (1965). Last month this whisky traded for 4.000 EUR. This month, a bidder at WAE was willing to pay well above 6.000 Euros. The same is true for the Clynelish 35yo (1971). Traded for 1.100 EUR last month, this whisky now achieved 1.750 EUR.

Ups & Downs

So everything is hunky-dory, and all prices go up? Of course not. Take the Lagavulin 16yo Special Boat Service release. This whisky sold at WAE in May 2018 for around 2.600 Euros. This month, at SWA, it achieved 750 EUR. But then again, at SWA, it sold for 1.300 EUR in January this year. It seems like market participants are more than confused.

Another more affordable example of a whisky that became cheaper this month is the Bruichladdich 11yo (2003) Life is a Circus release. About six months ago, prices for this whisky were well above 200 EUR. Now the price has dropped to 107 EUR.

As always, do not forget to check the latest value of your personal whisky collection.

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.