An honest drink It is the honesty, the lineage, the heritage and traditions that have attracted fans to Scotch, and whisky in general

An honest drink

It is the honesty, the lineage, the heritage and traditions that have attracted fans to Scotch, and whisky in general

Ask most people what country they think of when you mention whisky, and the answer will probably be Scotland. Whisky made in Scotland even has its own nickname—Scotch.

The Diamond Jubilee by John Walker and Sons.

But as those of you who picked up the Whisky Special edition of Indulge (and thank you for such positive feedback) would have learnt, Scotland is far from the only place on the planet producing this liquid gold. What makes each distillery unique, no matter where in the world it is located, is the product. The Macallan can only be made at the Macallan distillery in the heart of Scotland’s Speyside region. Gentleman Jack can only be made at the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee, US. And the Amrut single malt can only be made at the Amrut distillery in Bangalore. Each of these places differs in its level of production. Hampered by the usual issues that plague an artisanal, crafted product, it is not always plain sailing to produce the spirit that becomes whisky.
Take Highland Park in the furthermost reaches of the Scottish Islands. Boasting itself as Scotland’s most northerly distillery, it is stuck out in the Orkney Islands. I’ve visited it a few times, and trust me, the hour-long flight from Glasgow on a small turbo-prop aircraft in gale-force winds is about as much fun as being a passenger on a scooter riding through Mumbai in rush hour when your driver has realized he has forgotten his wife’s birthday, the father-in-law is coming over, and there is no decent whisky in the house. And it’s raining.

As a result of being stranded, shipwrecked almost, on a remote island, Highland Park is probably the most expensive single-malt Scotch. So why keep making it there? Because that is where it has always been made. Tradition is the key. To this end, single-malt Scotch is a very honest drink. It is this honesty, this lineage, this heritage and these traditions that have attracted fans to Scotch, and whisky in general. The same can be said to a certain extent about Irish and American whiskeys, too, and Japanese whisky is gaining a growing reputation for extreme quality and consistency.
But alongside attracting fans, whisky from all regions is gaining attention in the collectors/investors arena, too. Figures released at the start of 2012 show that the collectable end of the whisky market has grown significantly over the last few years, and has, according to a company called Whisky Highland, outperformed gold as an investment. The figures show that from 2008 to the end of 2011, the top 10 best-performing whiskies rose more than 400% in value, with the top 100 rising 245%, and the top 250 rising 180% in value. Compared with gold, which grew by 146% over the same period, whisky looks to be a jolly good investment. (For an additional comparison, diamonds only grew by 10%...but don’t tell the wife!)
Single malts will always enjoy the lion’s share of collectors’ and investors’ attention. Why? Because their output is limited and unique. Like a good artist, you enjoy their style, their personality. But some of their releases are very limited, and if you want one, you’d better be prepared to pay for it. It also doesn’t help the prices when people open rare bottles and drink from them. It just means that there is one less bottle in the world and fuels the prices of the others. A shame, as the liquid was made for drinking, after all!
However, the high rollers are also interested in blended whisky, too, which has a lot to offer in both the collectors’ market and the six-figure echelons of retail. Take Johnnie Walker. In 2009, a bottle of Black Label went on sale at iconic London department store Selfridges. A hundred unique bottles were released at £100 each to celebrate 100 years of trading. This week, I watched a bottle from this edition sell for over £900 at auction. Not a bad return in less than three years!
But £900 is nothing when it comes to their latest release: the Diamond Jubilee by John Walker and Sons. A blend crafted by Johnnie Walker master blender Jim Beveridge to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s reign of 60 years in Great Britain. The whiskies used in creating the blend were all distilled in 1952, the year of the queen’s coronation. The liquid comes in a handblown crystal decanter and a handcrafted wooden cabinet, with a tonne of other goodies that would make any craftsman weep with joy. And the price for this? Just £100,000.
Only 60 bottles of this super-rare Johnnie Walker have been produced, and purchase is by ‘‘invite only”. So when John Walker called me up, I started to panic. Sell the house? The car? The wife? Thankfully, the invitation was not to buy a bottle, but to join a lucky selection of whisky professionals to sample this astonishing blend. And astonishing is exactly what it is. Resplendent in its own majesty, this is truly a whisky fit for a queen. Just don’t expect to see it on eBay any time soon!