Rare whiskies seen as 'liquid gold' for collectors, investors
Industry veteran James Espey co-founded The Last Drop to cater to whisky collectors who value the craft and exclusivity behind old Scotch
In his five decades in the spirits industry, James Espey has helped launch some of the most loved brands - Johnnie Walker Blue Label, Chivas Regal 18-Year-Old and The Classic Malts, as well as Malibu and Bailey's Irish Cream.
At the age of 72, the man who retired in 1998 as the president of the Chivas and Glenlivet Group has shifted his attention to rare Scotch whiskies, which he expects to be the new "liquid gold", gaining favour among collectors.
The Last Drop Distillers, a brand he founded in 2008 with two spirits veterans Tom Jago and Peter Fleck, focuses on whiskies with an average age of 50 years. Production is very limited, at fewer than 2,000 bottles a year.
Espey had found there were barrels of old whiskies hidden from public view. They usually came in batches of several hundred bottles, too few to be taken seriously by big companies.
"What the big companies do is they blend it all and hide the age. But I thought if you buy Chateau Lafite, it's only so much a year," Espey said.
Instead of blurring the individualities of each whisky, he put strong emphasis on vintages and their rarity. One whisky he just brought to Hong Kong, a 48-year-old blended Scotch, includes malts and grains distilled in 1965 or earlier, some coming from several distilleries that are now closed. There are a total of 592 bottles worldwide, 22 of which are available in Hong Kong for HK$33,888 each.
The exclusivity and character of rare whiskies has attracted wine lovers, who are increasingly interested in extending their collections to cover spirits.
Investment returns on whiskies can reach 25 per cent per annum, he said, much higher than on Bordeaux wines, for which the market has been sluggish over the past few years.
The value of a 1960 whisky he launched in 2008 went up from £1,000 to more than £3,500 (HK$42,650) recently, Espey said.
"People are looking for something genuine and exclusive," he said. "They don't want big brands. They want craft."
Looking to the future, he believes the biggest potential of the spirits trade lies in Asia, especially China, where the middle class is booming.
Sotheby's will auction Bottle No1 of The Last Drop 50-year-old blended Scotch on May 23. The whisky, released last year, was a blend of 70 malts and 12 grains by Auchentoshan's Clydebank distillery near Glasgow in 1965. It has an estimated value of HK$50,000 to HK$100,000.
Zachys, which held its inaugural whisky auction in Hong Kong last September, will offer 204 lots of whisky and cognac in its upcoming auction on May 29 and 30.
A highlight will be a Macallan 60-year-old single malt Scotch in a Lalique decanter, estimated to cost HK$200,000 to HK$300,000.
