A message from the CEO - Edward Slater

Wholesale cask whiskey ownership is a developing market, and one that, to date, has gone largely unexplored by the public. As an industry leader, we are keen to understand what drives this market and motivates potential clients – and share these insights with a wider audience. Cask whiskey ownership has been available for centuries, but only to a select few.

Enabling private individuals to buy and hold casks for financial gain is a novel concept — disrupting centuries of tradition in both the Irish whiskey  industries to bring benefits to both long-established distilleries working to meet the surging demand for their premium whiskeys and innovative start-ups refreshing and renewing our love affair with this most extraordinary spirit.

A growing global passion for premium whiskey means that it is not only the distilleries that are innovating. Our company — Spirit Wealth — has identified new opportunities to bring the joy of whiskey ownership together with the attractive potential for returns. The concept is a relatively simple one, but realising it has thrown up many challenges, not least of which has included securing compliance with government revenue agencies and establishing trust with distilleries, whiskey lovers, and potential buyers alike.

I’m delighted to say that we have prevailed — securing some of the finest distilleries as partners and constantly breaking our own records in terms of sales. In Q1 2019 we sold over 330 casks of prime Irish spirit, and this leapt to over 1,100 casks in Q1 2022 equivalent to almost 230,000 litres.

We hope that you are as excited by these findings as we are and, if nothing else, you better understand the huge opportunities offered by cask whiskey.

Risk, return and the impact of insight

2020 was an extraordinary year The dominant headline is, of course, Covid 19, which has sent shockwaves around the world. It’s hardly surprising to see that confidence in the global economy has suffered, with JP Morgan’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) recording record falls in global manufacturing production for four straight months to May.

In this context, it’s easy to forget that investment markets were experiencing significant instability pre-pandemic. Challenges facing the global economy included: an ongoing trade war between the US and China; the UK’s final exit from the EU at the end of January, with ongoing concerns over trade negotiations and the possibility of a hard Brexit; and extreme volatility in the oil market with disagreements between Russia and OPEC early in the year, which saw Brent crude lose 24% of its value.

The UK’s FTSE 100 share index for the year from June 2019 to June 2020 shows the impact of global volatility on stock markets.

Perception versus reality

As new alternative options, Irish whiskey and Scotch whisky casks featured in the top three of the collective respondents’ buying preferences and reached 12% and 19% of all interest respectively.

While cask whiskey ownership is a relatively new phenomenon, the trading of whiskey is long established — specifically when it comes to premium and rare varieties. Rare bottles of Scotch single malt have seen outstanding performance at auction over the last decade, so there may be a disconnect between potential client awareness and market performance.

Worldwide, the whiskey market is booming. American, Canadian, Irish, Japanese, and Scottish brands are all experiencing strong growth in both retail and wholesale markets.

Quantity does not come at the cost of quality — in fact, just the opposite. Distilleries are innovating as never before and creating some of the finest whiskeys in the history of the industry.

It is a shift that meets with the approval of a growing number of increasingly sophisticated consumers. While cheaper blends still make up the bulk of the market, premium whiskeys are capturing the imaginations and palates of and increasing number of discerning drinkers.