Calling all Whisky lovers!

[eWave]

I've been collecting single malt Scotchs for few years now, not for a heavy drinking but more to enjoy one glass some days. My personal taste is on the smokey Islay side: Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Caol Ila and other great whisky distilleries in that island. Highland Park, coming from northern Orkney island, is also one of my all time favourites. Even when liking smokey ones, I enjoy opposite tastes of fruity Macallan as well as all the great ones coming from Speyside area. One more thing: never rocks for fine single malt, as they only ruin taste by making whisky too cold and taste too light after melting.

[stektan]

Hi.. Anyone keen for whiskey and cigar tomorrow night (7 Aug) after 8pm? If keen, pls Pm me.

[stektan]

Whisky, watches and cigars...

[Ramesh Retnam]

Why not organise a athering?I know of a great place to try out Whiskies.

[stektan]

Why not organise a athering?I know of a great place to try out Whiskies.

Sure, where are you thinking of?

[Beetle75]

My favourite single malt is Hellyers Road Distillery. can strongly recommend. Available at most airports duty free. If you travel to their distillery in Tasmania, Australia you can pour your own 80% straight out of the bond store. My daily drink is Drambuie. Nice smooth Irish blended.

[peachmuffin]

Have you tried Balblair?

[taxico]

Whisky collectors in high spirits

As the value of top malts rises, the temptation to keep bottles for investment gets stronger

Bloomberg

Hong Kong - When Mr Aaron Chan heard that a liquor store in Athens might have a rare Hanyu Ichiro Malt Japanese whisky, he phoned the shop from Hong Kong.

Unable to make himself understood in English, he e-mailed photos of the distillery's distinctive playing-card labels. The owner replied with a picture of his bottle. It was the Ace of Spades.

"That was my Eureka moment," said Mr Chan, who paid about HK$6,000 (S$980) for the bottle two years ago. "The Ace of Spades was very, very rare already."

Over a week ago, a similar bottle went for HK$85,750 at a Bonhams auction in Hong Kong, 14 times what Mr Chan paid and slightly more than the price of an entire case of 1982 Chateau Margaux that Sotheby's sold in New York seven weeks earlier.

Forget Bordeaux first growths. Investors are falling over themselves to snag iconic single-malt scotches like Macallan, Bowmore and Dalmore and Japan's rare Karuizawa and Yamazaki whiskies.

Sotheby's sold a six-litre Lalique decanter of Macallan "M" single malt in January for a record HK$4.9 million. "I'm not really an advocate of buying whisky and flipping it," said director of whisky education Heather Greene at the Flatiron Room in Manhattan, a haven for spirit lovers that offers tasting classes to aspiring connoisseurs. "But I'm getting questions from people asking if they should buy a couple of cases and sell them for double."

Double? Try quintuple. According to the Investment Grade Scotch index, published by Whisky Highland in Tain, Scotland, the top 100 single malts delivered an average return of 440 per cent from the start of 2008 till the end of July this year. That compares with a 31 per cent gain in the S&P 500 stock index and a sobering 2 per cent drop in the Liv-ex 100 Benchmark Fine Wine Index.

The price surge is great news for Mr Mahesh Patel, 47, an Atlanta developer who has amassed more than 5,000 bottles over the past 25 years. "Everything I have is appreciating," he said. His cache is insured for close to US$6 million (S$7.5 million).

"I am a believer of buying two of everything. One to open and enjoy, the other to put away if it's rare." One exception to his two-bottle rule is a Dalmore Trinitas 64 Year Old, which he bought in 2010 for £100,000 (S$207,000). Only three were ever made.

As the value of top malts rises, the temptation to keep bottles for investment gets stronger. "Current prices make me hesitate about drinking as freely as two or three years ago," said Mr Chan, whose 500-bottle collection includes all 54 of the Hanyu playing-card series (including the two Jokers).

One reason for the surge in prices is that distillers simply can't react to the increase in demand fast enough because whisky takes so long to age. Even a standard duty-free Glenfiddich or Glenlivet spends 12 years in the cask, and investment grade scotches many more years.

The 1962 Macallan that the villainous Raoul Silva offered James Bond in "Skyfall" was aged for half a century.

A batch from Port Ellen on the Scottish island of Islay, which was shuttered in 1983, is still releasing vintages as they come of age. The 1978 sold last year, one bottle per customer, for £1,500.

If you like your scotch with ice, there's a box of Mackinlay's Rare Old Highland Malt that was exhumed in 2010 in the Antarctic, where it had been left by explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1907. Protected by the Antarctic Heritage Trust, the 11 bottles will never be uncorked, but a wee dram was drawn from one by syringe and a replica produced by Whyte & Mackay in Scotland. "I'd like to taste the original," said Mr Mark Gillespie, who runs virtual tastings on WhiskyCast from Haddonfield, New Jersey, and sampled the reproduction.

The rising demand for rare malts prompted Mr Rickesh Kishnani, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based Platinum Wines, to start the world's first whisky fund in June after raising US$4 million in the first round of financing. "There will be a gap in the market for 10-15 years between the supply of rare old single malts and growing demand, particularly in Asia," he said.

Part of that demand is coming from wine collectors who are switching to the hard stuff after a 35 per cent decline in the Liv-ex 100 from its June 2011 peak.

"My wine portfolio is not doing very well right now so I am diversifying into whisky," said collector S.K. Yu, who attended the Aug 15 Bonhams auction of Japanese single malts.

Inevitably, whisky's popularity is spawning counterfeits, said Mr Luigi Barzini, spirits specialist at London-based merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd. "There are a lot of fakes across Asia and some in Italy. It's a big problem for all of us."

Still, buyers are undaunted. "Demand has exploded," said Mr David Wainwright, senior managing director of Zachys Asia, which is selling 70 lots in a Sept 6 auction in Hong Kong.

The frenzy is making others nervous about the growing number of speculators. "A lot of people are jumping in now who didn't think about whisky as as investment four or five years ago," said WhiskyCast's Mr Gillespie. "The needle is getting closer to the bubble."

That doesn't bother Mr Patel terribly much. "I don't see this as a paper investment, it has inherent value," he said. "At the end of the day, you can still open the bottle and enjoy it."

[sea&sea]

Japanese whisky is good
im in love with it now.
it will be good to eat with Japanese cucumber and smoke with cigar

[stektan]

Japanese whisky is good
im in love with it now.
it will be good to eat with Japanese cucumber and smoke with cigar

Yes, cigar with Japanese whisky...join us next time! We have 2 bts of Jap whisky to finish!

[sea&sea]

cool

[MsLucifer]

down to my last 2 bottles, time to order some more.

[stektan]

Nice...I seriously would be keen to get a bottle of this! Can share the lobang please MsLucifer?!

down to my last 2 bottles, time to order some more.

[triton]

count me in if want to order.

[MsLucifer]

You got pm.

Nice...I seriously would be keen to get a bottle of this! Can share the lobang please MsLucifer?!