Now you can invest in £10,000 casks of Scotch whisky to help fund a fledgling distillery
Bored of ordinary bonds, and sick of shares? If you have a spare £10,000 you can now invest in a cask of Scotch whisky.
The £10,000 whisky "bonds" are being offered by new Scottish distillery Arbikie, which is producing its first whisky line and looking for investors with the patience to wait until the spirit has aged sufficiently to sell on and realise a profit.
Whisky must mature for a minimum of three years before it officially 'becomes' whisky, but most premium brands mature for 12 to18 years. So only long-term investors need apply.
Read more: James Bond boosts gin exports
After eight years the investor can cash out and sell the cask back to the distillery to get their money back, or wait longer to sell the cask back and hopefully make a profit, when the whisky should be worth more and fetch a higher price.
The cask-owner can choose to keep the cask, or bottle it themselves, rather than selling the cask back to the distillery. Or, Arbikie will offer the investor advice as to when the whisky is ready to bottle, and be sold on.
There are two cask types: 200 litre ex-bourbon barrels, which will yield around 230 bottles of whisky after 10 years, and 250 litre ex-sherry casks that will yield an estimated 280 at 10 years with a slightly different flavour.
The proceeds from the investment will be used to develop the fledgling distillery.
Arbikie is a family distillery, founded a year ago. Its focus so far has been on vodka and gin, which don't take as long to produce and mature. All the ingredients, from barley to water to potatoes for the vodka, are locally sourced, and often grown on the company's own farm.