WHEN HISTORY REPEATS

Investment in whisky is nothing new, but history has shown that there is good reason to exercise caution if one is looking to take up a financial interest – though the nature and extent of the risk involved varies depending on the type of investment.

The most traditional and secure way to invest is by doing so directly in whisky or spirits companies via the stock market. Several of the larger distillers are seen as prime stock options and are often recommend as a way to diversify a growing portfolio – Diageo, Pernod Ricard, AB InBev and Brown-Forman are all publicly traded, for instance. Rare and limited bottles have certainly turned the heads of whisky speculators in recent years, but getting the right bottles can be tricky due to the ever-growing demand. A great deal of specialist knowledge is required in order to choose the ‘right’ bottles and, in any case, competition is often fierce when they do come up for sale.

This difficulty has led some investors to try getting in on the ‘ground floor’, as it were, by looking to purchase, or partly invest in, casks of maturing whisky. A diverse range of methods to do this have popped up over the past several years: cask-share schemes, specialist whisky investment funds and even crypto currency tied to maturing whisky stock – all promising good returns. But, as with any investment, there are always risks.

While some have certainly celebrated investment success as a result of ploughing their money into whisky cask ownership, there have been a number of schemes over the years which have hit the headlines for quite the