What makes a whiskey rare or valuable? It is hard to say if there is any one thing that makes a particular whiskey more valuable than another, but there are certainly factors that influence the value and rarity of a whiskey. These include Age, Production Numbers, Brand Name, and Bottle Condition. These factors, when combined in the right way, can lead to a whiskey being highly sought after. While rarity is something worth celebrating in its own right, rare whiskeys are also often worth a pretty penny, too.
Age
Do you know that old saying “the best things in life are worth waiting for”? When it comes to whiskey, that almost always rings true. An older whiskey is typically going to be rarer and more expensive than a younger whiskey. There are a few reasons for this, but the first, and arguably the most important, is taste. Whiskey is produced by distilling alcohol from grain or corn, which is then aged in wooden barrels or casks for a set period of time. The longer that the whiskey ages in the barrel, the more the flavor of the whiskey develops. Some whiskey even seeps into the wooden staves of the barrel, and flavors from the wood enter the whiskey, giving the whiskey a wide variety of tasting notes like oak, vanilla, leather, bananas foster, and much more. Barrel aging also gives whiskey its characteristic brown color, which is why moonshine (unaged whiskey) is clear.
Aging imparts flavor and color, but aging also contributes to a whiskey’s rarity and value in another respect. As distilleries age their whiskies, they release some at various intervals. Therefore, fewer barrels remain aging over a long period of time. This makes the production numbers of older whiskies smaller than younger ones. In addition, since some of the whiskey aging in the barrel is absorbed into the wood, less whiskey remains accessible. Thus, very old whiskies are much harder to produce and much fewer in number than younger bottles.
There is one note about whiskey age statements that is important to state. Legally, the age given on a bottle of whiskey is the age of the youngest whiskey in the bottle. So, for instance, if Distillery A blends an 80 year old whiskey with a 40 year old whiskey, the resulting mix would be labelled as a 40 year old whiskey. In the United States, you can state percentages to get around this (20% – 80 year old whiskey, 80% – 40 year old whiskey), but the bottle cannot be labelled as 80 years old, as that would be false advertising.
Production Numbers
Here’s a simple question: if you make five hundred bottles of Whiskey A and just one bottle of Whiskey B, which is more scarce? By a long shot, Whiskey B is the scarcer of the two whiskeys. Therefore, since Whiskey B is rarer than Whiskey A, you could probably sell it for a higher price than a bottle of Whiskey A. While most distilleries will produce more than one bottle of a given whiskey (even if it is aged for a very long time), the same logic holds true on a larger scale.
The concept of supply and demand is very important in the whiskey business. In general, the lower the production numbers are of a given whiskey, the higher the demand (natural or manufactured) will be. So, Macallan can produce thousands of bottles of their 12 Year Old Scotch each year, but they can (and will) only produce a few bottles of their super aged scotch, like their 81 Year Old “The Reach” which is sourced from one barrel. That is why Macallan 12 sells for about $65 a bottle at press time, while “The Reach” is listed, at lowest, at $220,000 per bottle. Not every low-production whiskey is due to extreme age, however. Whiskeys can be limited in production by design, to drum up more market interest and produce a rarer spirit.
Brand Name
Quickly, tell me, which is more expensive: a department store tee shirt or a designer tee shirt? Of course, the answer is the designer tee shirt, but why is that? These shirts could be made in the exact same place, with the only difference being a sewn-on designer logo, but people will gladly shell out hundreds of dollars for the designer tee and scoff at paying ten dollars for the store brand. It’s the name that carries the value. The same principle holds true for whiskey. A well-established and revered distillery can make a whiskey, age it for twelve years, and sell it for a few hundred dollars, while a less revered distillery can make a nearly identical product and it could sell for much less. Some customers will pay for the clout of a name, rather than for the quality of what’s in the bottle.
That is not to say that more famous distilleries are putting out undesirable whiskey, as typically these distilleries have a well-earned reputation for a good product. Dedication to quality is why whiskeys like Old Rip Van Winkle carry a premium in the marketplace. In the world of spirits auctions, a brand name is a good thing, as it is easily recognizable. Easy recognition translates into easy saleability, which translates into more money in the seller’s pocket.
Bottle Condition
Whiskeys, like anything else, are worth more in better condition than in worse. If you have two identical bottles of whiskey, one in excellent condition with its box and the other without its box and with its label torn, the first will sell for a higher price than the second. This is due to both aesthetic and practical reasons. If a whiskey is in better visual condition, it was probably well taken care of and has a higher likelihood of still tasting good. If a whiskey bottle is in poor physical condition, it may have been improperly stored, and the juice inside might have off flavors. Besides, who wants to display an ugly, peeling bottle of whiskey?
Conclusion and the “X Factor”
The rarity and value of a particular bottle of whiskey can depend on a variety of factors, but the most important are Age, Production Numbers, Brand Name, and Bottle Condition. When these factors mix, the result is a bottle of whiskey that is both rare and valuable. This is why a bottle like Macallan 81 Year Old “The Reach” is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars: it is incredibly old, of a very limited edition/production number, produced by a storied Scotch distillery, and in a beautifully presented bottle. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that it can sell for as much as it does.
All of this is not to say, however, that a whiskey cannot become valuable or rare for other reasons. In the age of social media, where tastes can change in an instant and chic can be defined by a 10 second Tik Tok, which whiskeys are particularly sought after is by no means set in stone. The whiskey market is, in many ways, the Wild West, and the covered wagons are just starting to pull up.
You’ll need a guide to make your way through this frontier, and Good Bottle Auctions is here to help. We know the business and the market, so we want to make sure you know everything you need to be an informed buyer or seller of rare whiskey. With us, you’ll know that you’re dealing with straight-shooters.
Interested in buying or selling with us? Let us know!
Works cited:
https://www.ttb.gov/system/files/images/pdfs/spirits_bam/chapter8.pdf
https://www.themacallan.com/en-us/single-malt-scotch-whisky/the-reach-whisky
