by Lew Bryson
That last point works both ways, though. While there are things that are made specifically as “collectibles,” or things with minuscule intrinsic value that are fiercely collected (like stamps), whiskey is not particularly cheap, nor was it made to be collected. In fact, as several distillers have said in the face of the collecting craze, “We make it to drink!”
I’ve taken that to heart, and you won’t find very many unopened bottles in my “collection.” Whiskey writer Jim Murray refers to his collection of thousands of different whiskeys as his “library,” and that’s an image I embrace. You can take a bottle down, pour a dram — or just a taste — and enjoy it again, remind yourself of what its qualities are. But of course, once you’ve opened the bottle, its value on the auction circuit drops to zero.
No, to have a whiskey collection is to have bottles on the shelf that you are not opening. Some collectors will buy two bottles; one to keep, one to drink. Some will buy as many as they can afford, either to trade for other desirable bottles or to sell as the price goes up. There’s been whiskey “flipping” going on over the past 5 years or so, when buyers will scoop up as much of an allotment of a rare whiskey as they can get their hands on, then turn right around and sell it at a profit to whiskey fans unfortunate enough not to be around when the bottles hit the shelves. That’s not just greedy; it’s often illegal — selling whiskey without a license is an offense in a number of states and countries — and it’s certainly bad karma.
Distillers and bottlers drive this kind of collecting with releases of ultrarare, ultraexpensive whiskeys: the Dalmore Constellation Collection (starting at $3,200 a bottle) and one-off Richard Paterson Collection (a dozen-bottle set for $1.5 million); Glenmorangie Pride 1981 (suggested retail: $4,400); the Bowmore 1957 (sold for $160,000). Small amounts of whiskey from old casks are bottled as miniatures to maximize the money (and the number of people who can own such a prized piece of whiskey history, no doubt). The soaring prices of these rare whiskies have, it is believed, helped to pull up the price of whiskey in general, and there is no end in sight.
A packaged bottle of Michter’s Celebration bourbon retailed for $4,000 per bottle.
Too Valuable to Sell
I was lucky enough to be invited to the U.S. launch of the Mackinlay’s Shackleton Rare Old Highland Malt, at the Explorer’s Club in Manhattan. I distinguished myself by almost knocking over New Zealand’s ambassador to the United States; it was quite a night. We were celebrating the release of a copycat whisky that had been created because the incredibly rare original was too valuable to consider selling.
A New Zealand archeological expedition to Antarctica in 2007 was conserving the hut of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 polar expedition when they found, buried in the ice under the hut, three intact crates of whisky. Under the protocols that governments have agreed to on Antarctic research, the whisky could not be removed from the continent except for conservation or scientific purposes. One crate was taken to New Zealand, where it was carefully thawed over two weeks; 10 of the 11 bottles inside were full and intact. Three of them were taken to Whyte & Mackay’s spirit laboratories in Scotland for examination by master blender Richard Paterson.
After chemical analysis and careful nosing of very small samples extracted by needle, the lineage of the whisky was determined, and Paterson began choosing similarly made modern whiskies to re-create the flavor of the original. The result was the whisky we had that night: lightly smoky, quite fruity, and refined. Fifty thousand bottles were produced, and part of the purchase price of each one went to the Antarctic Heritage Trust for conservation of early Antarctic exploration sites.
And the original case, with the three ever-so-slightly-lighter bottles reverently returned from Scotland, was taken back to Shackleton’s hut, and put back in the ice.
That’s what leads to arrangements where whiskeys are bought at auction — and never leave the auction house. They are kept, safe and secure investments, until the new owner decides to sell. I’ll be honest: I can’t fathom such behavior. I have investments, and I can’t lay my hands on them even if I want to right now, but this is whiskey. I can go to my cupboards and pick up that bottle, feel the weight of it, and open it if I so desire. Investments like these remind me of the art auctions in the 1980s, where Van Goghs and Rembrandts sold for ever-increasing amounts and never left the vaults except during the auctions. That makes me wonder about the expanding pressure of a bubble, but prices continue to climb, even through the recent recession.
It’s not all bafflement and billionaires, and I don’t mean to leave you with that impression. There are the good collectors, who pursue the bottles because they truly love them and want to be able to open up the doors and turn on the lights and see every possible bottling of Ardbeg, or a wall full of whiskeys from closed distilleries that there will never be more of. These are most often the people who will want to share and spread the love, because they are evangelists of a sort; they have had their lives changed (or at least enriched) by an experience with a whiskey, and they want to help other people have the same kind of pleasure.
These are the pleasant eccentrics. They may have tattoos of the logos or emblems of their favorite whiskey. They’ll certainly have plenty of branded clothing and glassware. Their whiskey is like their team. In advanced cases the distillery will know them by name and often roll out the welcome mat for them (and may give them advance notice of release dates).
The Decoy Bottle
I’m not encouraging you to be selfish, but it happens all too often. A friend comes over, you offer him a whiskey, and he likes it. So you offer him something better, and he likes that, too . . . and then he wants another, and then he walks over and starts free-pouring your Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23-year-old, and he tells you, “This stuff’s not bad!”
And now you’ll listen to me when I tell you: you need some decoy bottles. It took me a while to figure it out, but I had a friend who loved whiskey. Any whiskey. As long as we were drinking whiskey, he really didn’t care if it was Black Label or Black Bowmore. So I started making sure I always had a bottle of Black Label; not that I have a bottle of Black Bowmore, but I do have stuff I don’t want to roar through half a bottle at a time.
Know your friends, and know your tolerance for pouring your collection. And consider getting some decoy bottles.
Why Collect?
Maybe you feel that urge, maybe you had that amazing experience with a bottle or a dram, and you want to start to collect. Think about what you like, and about what might be reasonable. After all, if you really like something that everyone else likes, there’s not as much of it to go around, and the price goes up and up. So think again, and maybe you’ll think of something that’s not quite as hard to find. Just be sure it’s something you like to drink.
Are you going to collect to drink, taking the library approach? Aim your collection in the direction you want, but leave some leeway at the sides for additional whiskies you learn you like; a drinking collection should be a bit more broad.
Are you going to collect to invest? Take the long view, because even in the best of times for whiskey investment — which are the worst of times for the drinker! — you’re going to have to take a portfolio approach and be in play for years to realize serious appreciation. And there’s always the threat of a bubble that will take the prices up and up until it bursts and prices crash well below where they were. Best to diversify; whiskey is no place for retirement investing, although it does offer the option of drinking the ones that don’t pay off. (Try that with stock certificates.) Stick to reputable auction houses or individuals you know; as collectible whiskey prices go up, a growing number of fakes are entering the marketplace. Caveat emptor.
Are you going to collect for the pleasure of collecting? I hope you’re buying good drinking stock as well; the idea of all those bottles just sitting there collecting dust makes me crazy.
Don’t collect everything on the Internet! The best liquor stores are great places to
learn about whiskey. They offer tastings, and the people running the whiskey section are often as crazy about the stuff as you are. You’ll meet other enthusiasts, exchange information, and start to build a network of friends who can lead you to more and better bottles, and likely share them, too. Remember to pay it forward; offering tastes to friends works both ways.
The Whiskey Auction
If you’re going to go to an auction, be sure you understand what you’re getting into. There’s a fee to register, and you’ll want to invest the time to check out the whiskeys on offer before the actual sale. Preparation is important; you’ll want to see the bottles beforehand if possible. Check the condition of the label, the condition of the closure, and the level of liquid in the bottle. If it’s below the shoulder, the bend of the bottle to the neck, chances are it’s oxidized and won’t be worth drinking.
You’re going to need to know what to look for, especially today. Just as it was when wine began attracting big money at auctions, whiskey is attracting forgers and fakes. Beware an overly full older bottle; it might be refilled. Look out for misspellings on labels; it’s usually a sign of counterfeiting. Keep in mind that single malt bottlings were somewhat unusual before 1960.
You can often find bargains in the bundles. Auctions sell single bottles of the really collectible stuff, but they also sell “parcels” of bottles, sometimes all one distillery, sometimes regional, and sometimes just a bundle of bottles. If you take a close look at the bundle, and know what you’re willing to pay, you can make out okay if you’re curious and want to try some new things.
If you find something good, think about how much you can spend. Then find out how much more you’ll have to spend on the auction’s fees, taxes, shipping charges (which can be astronomical), and storage charges. If you’re in a foreign country, find out what the customs charges are for bringing whiskey home (and how many bottles your airline will allow). Now figure out how much you can spend again, and stick to your budget. You’ll be growing your collection with some stuff you won’t find down at the corner liquor store.
Storing Whiskey
Whiskey is stable, as I said earlier, but it needs as much help as it can get. The bottles keep best in the dark, in stable temperatures between 55° and 75°F (13° and 24°C). If it’s too damp, the labels will get moldy; if it’s too dry, the corks will crack. Speaking of the corks, whiskey is not wine! Don’t keep the bottles on their sides; the higher concentration of alcohol will cause the cork to deteriorate.
If you’ve got a growing tasting collection, you’ll want to keep the whiskey in good condition after opening it. Keep the closures in good shape (in fact, if the cork from an emptied bottle is in good shape, keep it, just in case a cork goes bad in a live bottle). Oxygen is whiskey’s enemy after the bottle’s opened; it will change the color, aroma, and flavor of a whiskey over time. You can protect the whiskey with the same cans of pressurized inert gas that wine drinkers use (which is what I do), or you can get some glass marbles, boil them gently for 15 minutes, and let them cool, then carefully add them to the bottles to bring the headspace up to where it was before. It works, but you have to be careful when you pour. You can also decant, slowly, into increasingly smaller bottles.
If you’re going to take care of your collection, think about where you’re going to put it. If it becomes extensive enough, you’re eventually going to wind up with custom shelving or off-site storage (climate controlled, and they do exist; check with a wine collector). If you have an investment collection, rather than a drinking collection, you’ll have to think about security and insurance if it reaches this point.
The Price of Whiskey
That brings us to the money talk, which is: why does whiskey cost so much? There are some good reasons, and some not-so-good reasons, but what we really want to know is why this one bottle is so much more than another. It’s a very important question to the collector, because she’ll want to have both bottles.
Start with age. Think of whisky as a class in school. Here’s the Scotch whisky that was distilled in 1980, the Class of ’80, and there are 500 barrels. Eight years later 50 of them are dumped for inclusion in a blended whisky; a year later, 100 more. A year later there are still 350, but they are no longer full; whisky has been evaporating. There is the equivalent of 300 barrels left in 1990. Two years later 200 are dumped: half for single malt, half for blending. There are 100 left. Five years later, in 1997, the barrels have lost more whisky; what’s left is the equivalent of 70 barrels, and 40 are dumped for single malt. In 2010 there are 30 barrels left, with about 20 barrels of whisky left in them.
Thirty years ago there were 500 barrels; now there are only 20. They are rarer, the only ones left. They are worth more with “30 years old” on the label, because people will pay more for that. They are worth more because over the 30 years between 1980 and 2010, demand has dramatically increased for Scotch whisky. If the distillery has closed or been demolished in the intervening time, more increase is added, because the barrels can never be replaced once emptied. That’s one way whisky gets more expensive.
It can become even more expensive if demand for a brand increases, or tastes change. A bottling can command a higher price if it is finished in a wildly successful way in a different type of wood. It can increase in price simply by virtue of being an amazing whisky because of the barrels, the warehouse position, the quality of the malt that year.
Whisky can also become more expensive by fiat, by a decision by management to charge more. If people still buy it, it was the right decision, and if enough people buy it, a growing number, that will be reason enough to raise prices again.
The collector, though, will find a way to increase her collection. She may trade lesser bottlings for the big score, whiskeys bought cheap and now sold dear to finance a purchase. Finding a way is important when you’ve got a collection going.
The important thing is to keep perspective. How much of your life are you willing to give to your collection; how much joy does it bring you? What’s your exit strategy? I know several people who say their collection is done; they have enough whiskey to last the rest of their lives and then some. Others intend to leave it to their children (often with detailed instructions).
I’ve told my family that when I die they should bury me with a bottle of table bourbon and throw a wake with every other bottle opened up and set out on the tables. Pick out what they want to keep, and whatever’s left, send it home with the guests. They make the stuff to drink, after all.
Resources
Well, here we are. You’ve made it to the end. I hope you realize that it’s just the beginning, a jump-start to years of selecting, investigating, enjoying, and tasting whiskey.
I’ve tried to give you a condensed version of what I’ve learned and discovered about whiskey in the past 35 years. It should put you well ahead on your learning curve with some useful thoughts on how to taste whiskey, a better perspective on what the different versions of whiskey around the world represent, some ideas on how to enjoy them, and the fun (and risks) of collecting them. I’ve also given you some of my favorite whiskey stories, some contrarian views, and a certain amount of entertaining trivia.
But before you close the door and start out on the trip that never ends, I’d like to offer you a wee deoch an doris, a “drink at the door,” or, as we used to say in America, here’s one for the road. It’s a stirrup cup of more goodies to help you learn beyond this book.
Whiskey on the Web
Information on almost everything can be found on the Internet, and whiskey is no exception. There are distiller and company sites, of course, and they’re of varying value; some are quite good indeed, some are barely there. The Macallan has a nice selection of videos that provide real detail on its whisky-making process, for instance themacallan.com, and Buffalo Trace has a good set of similar videos narrated by the man who actually makes the whiskey: master distiller Harlen Wheatley (http://buffalotrace.com). (Those two got mentioned not just because they
’re good but because they both have a one-click yes/no entrance exam about being of legal drinking age, not the annoying requirement of entering your birth date.)
You can get your whiskey information more than one distillery at a time at nonaffiliated sites. Whiskey bloggers are doing it for the love, mostly, though some of them are on a semiprofessional basis. Here are a few of my favorites, and why.
Canadian Whisky
www.canadianwhisky.org
A collection of information and reviews of Canadian whisky by Davin de Kergommeaux, author of Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert. I can tell you from personal experience, the man’s knowledge of Canadian whisky is encyclopedic, and he’s happy to share.
The Chuck Cowdery Blog
http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com
Chuck Cowdery’s about as blunt as the name of his blog. He lays out what he sees and knows about the American whiskey business without much fancy footwork. He’s got years of experience writing about it in Whisky Advocate and Whisky Magazine and in his book Bourbon, Straight, and he also publishes an excellent subscription newsletter, The Bourbon County Reader.
Malt Madness, Malt Maniacs, and WhiskyFun.com
www.maltmadness.com,
www.maltmaniacs.net,
and www.whiskyfun.com
Loosely related; not sure how else to put it, but there’s too much information to ignore here! It’s a group of people who are incredibly passionate about Scotch whisky, who disagree and argue about it, and who want nothing more than to teach you more about Scotch whisky (and have some fun while doing it). An incredible amount of good information (including whisky reviews and distillery profiles, which are linked to the excellent Interactive Whisky Map).