Starting your cask ownership journey can be both exciting and daunting. Some people buy with the intention of bottling at a later date, others want to hold on to their liquid for a number of years with the intention of making a profit. Whatever your motivation, there are a few considerations we encourage you to explore.
Consideration 1: Budget and Time
Approaching cask ownership with a clear budget and timeframe makes the selection process much easier. Having a clear budget will help you narrow down the cask selection into your given range. It also means we at Cask Trade, can find the right cask to suit your needs, even if we don’t have it in stock at the time of your enquiry.
Setting a clear timeframe is also important. While you don’t have to specify the exact number of years, we do encourage you to set long term hold goals, especially if you are buying new-make or young casks. This gives your cask the opportunity to mature and appreciate over time. If you have shorter term goals, such as finding a cask to bottle, we can help you find the right cask which meets your budget and expectations.
Read our Beginner’s Guide which covers these considerations in more detail.
Consideration 2: Building a Portfolio
For those who already own casks of whisky, we would encourage you to look at building a diversified portfolio, meaning owning different casks with a variety of characteristics such as distillery, age, and size of cask. This kind of variety ensures your portfolio is more robust against market fluctuations or changing trends.
At Cask Trade, we never sell casks by the pallet or encourage private individuals to bulk buy. Even if current market trends dictate that certain casks or distilleries show promise, we can’t predict what the trends will be in ten years.
Consideration 3: Current Market Trends
Is whisky a good alternative investment? This is one of the most common questions we discuss with our clients. Like with any alternative investment, we can only answer this based on historic trends and what we currently see the market doing – any company who promises exact figures of profit and return should be treated with caution.
That being said, it is helpful to read up on the current market trends. Recent export figures published by the Scotch Whisky Association show a 3.7% decline in total export value on 2023. It’s a figure that is still up 10% on pre-Covid pandemic figures, which supports the observations Cask Trade made in October 2024 in Beyond The Cask (our annual market trends report) - Scotch whisky is down, but most definitely not out. These market fluctuations reinforce that fact that private clients should treat casks as a long-term investment rather than a short-term quick money maker.
Keeper of the Quaich, Colin Hampden White, discusses 2025 whisky trends in more detail, covering topics such as regulatory changes, 2025 trends, and dos and don’ts for the coming year.
Consideration 4: Due Diligence
The cask whisky market is an unregulated industry. This means anyone can set up a cask trading company with very little experience or qualification. At Cask Trade, we celebrate and welcome newcomers to the industry. However, we are saddened and frustrated that industry standards have been failed though fraudsters and malpractice over the last few years. Upholding legitimacy and standards is a priority for us at all times.
For anyone starting their cask ownership journey, we encourage a thorough check of the below points when deciding what company to partner with:
- Companies House – check who owns the business, how long they have been running for, and where they are registered.
- Physical Location – having a legitimate office, tasting room, or warehouse where face to face interaction can be arranged supports another layer of security and legitimacy. The opportunity to visit your cask also means you can see exactly where it is stored.
- Cask Selection Process – do they offer tastings, samples, or any unbiased educational material to help you make your choice?
- Whisky Knowledge – are the team made up of genuine whisky enthusiasts who understand the product and market?
- Delivery Orders (DOs) and Paperwork – what paperwork do you receive on purchase of your cask and are the company willing to issue an individual account via a DO if requested?
- Stockists or Brokers – do they own the stock that they are selling? Many companies broker stock, meaning they do not own what they sell. At Cask Trade, we are stockists. Everything we sell is already owned by us, meaning we can prove the physical legitimacy of the cask.
- Exit Options – what forms of cask exit do they offer and can they prove they have exited other casks?
Consideration 5: Price Check
At Cask Trade, we are confident that our cask prices are some of the best on the market. However, we also like to encourage customers to do their market research and price check across three or more companies.
Please contact us or speak to your account manager if you want to discuss cask prices and check against other suppliers.
Consideration 6: Cask sampling
Cask sampling is an essential part of your cask ownership journey. For those who are passionate about the liquid in their cask and want enjoy it at a later date, we encourage you to come in for a tasting so you can get an idea of what your cask(s) will taste like at an older age statement. This can help in the selection process, especially if you are buying your cask to bottle or enjoy samples of along the way.
As your cask ages, we also provide maintenance services including samplings, re-gauging and re-racking. This means you can keep a close eye on the quality of the liquid and alter the flavour profile if you wish though a cask re-rack. Visit the Cask Trade Warehouse page which covers more detail about how we look after casks over their lifetime.
Whoever you choose to purchase a cask from, make sure the relevant sampling and maintenance services are available to ensure your cask journey is smooth and secure beyond the point of purchase.
Consideration 7: Exit Expectations
For most private cask investors, their primary goal is to sell their cask for profit – we therefore encourage you to research how the sale of your cask can be supported in years to come. At Cask Trade, we offer a number of proven services to help you exit your cask:
- Auction Your Cask – we set up the world’s first online auction platform. Running 4 x auctions per year, there is plenty of opportunity to sell your cask to a global audience of whisky enthusiasts and bottlers.
- Bottle Your Cask – alongside our new warehouse is a bottling facility, meaning we can efficiently organise the bottling and branding of your own whisky to sell. Contact our Head of Operations, Jessica Simmons, to learn more: info@casktrade.com.
- Sell on Your Behalf – we have built a global community of cask enthusiasts and bottles. To sell on your behalf, we would agree on a price and then sell the cask through our stock list, adding a 15% buyer’s premium.
- Sell Privately – we can help facilitate any private sale.
- Cask Buy Back – in some cases, we may make an offer to buy back your cask based on the market rates at the time.
We are unable to predict how easily your cask will sell in years to come. However, we endeavour to help you get the best price possible and can feedback when we see market trends either working for or against your cask at the point of sale.
Work with Cask Trade
If you have decided to buy a cask through us, welcome! Register online and one of our account managers will be in touch to discuss your cask ownership goals.
Based in Hong Kong?
Our expert team in Hong Kong can also be contacted for APAC specific enquiries.