A Whisky Scam where investors lost life savings is a key reminder of why you need to work with trusted investment companies.
There has been plenty of press coverage about the money to be made in alternative assets such as whisky and fine wine, but sadly the gains that can be made have also attracted unscrupulous practitioners.A BBC investigation revealed a case in March 2025 where investors were conned out of milions in a whisky barrel investment scam. According to the BBC the City of London Police Serious and Organised Crime team is currently investigating three whisky investment companies.
Whisky Investment Companies being investigated by the police:
- Cask Whisky Limited
- Cask Spirits Global Limited
- Whisky Scotland Limited
Returns on whisky investments rose in the decade to 2022 and headlines of extremely rare whiskies selling for six-figure sums attracted many new investors to the sector.
This surge in demand saw prices rocket and in 2022 the Knight Frank Wealth Report revealed that whisky had produced the largest 10-year return of luxury assets they monitor that year at an average 428%. It’s worth noting that fine wine was the top performing luxury asset in 2022 with average 12-month growth of 16%.
A key observation is the tightness of the whisky market and that, as in the art market, one or a few very high-ticket sales can distort the general market performance data.
Since 2022, average gains for whisky have slowed and between October 2023 and September 2024 auction sales of rare whisky declined 16% in volume and 18% in value. In Q3 2024 trade plunged 24% in volume and 34% in value (source: Whisky Intelligence Report, Noble & Co.)
The most expensive whisky investment
Extremely rare single bottle sales of the leading whisky investment brand, The Macallan have exceeded £1million. The current most expensive bottle ever sold is the Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 60-year-old which raised $2.7million at auction in November 2023. These headline-grabbing sales continue to tempt many investors to add whisky to their investment portfolios.
How can whisky investments go wrong?
The pitfalls for unlucky whisky investors include the following:
- Whisky has been over-priced at purchase and turned out to be worth a fraction of the price paid
- Individual casks have been sold multiple times to different investors
- Investors have been mis-sold the level of returns for their whisky
- Casks sold to investors did not exist
- Investors may not be aware of the different tax treatment of cask and bottle whisky. Capital Gains Tax applies to gains on bottled whisky, but not on cask investments.
Tax and whisky investment: Bottle vs Cask
Investors need to be aware of the tax treatment of whisky by HMRC. Whisky in cask is regarded as a Wasting Asset and therefore any gains on sale are generally exempt from Capital Gains Tax (‘CGT’).
Bottled whisky is expected to have a life of more than 50 years and therefore profits will attract CGT. Duty and VAT are also applicable on bottled whisky out of bonded storage.
With the Alcohol Duty changes in the UK in February 2025 linked to the strength of alcohol, Duty on whisky is now a more significant cost to investors.
How do we provide safe wine investment?
Why are we flagging the problems with whisky investment? Twenty years ago, fine wine also faced issues with unscrupulous scammers. Companies that wanted to deliver safe and rewarding access to investing in fine wine, like Vin-X, had to work hard to develop secure systems and controls to provide a specialist service investors can trust. The market evolution driven by digital technology, and particularly Liv-ex.com, was crucial in providing price transparency, trading information and data investors could rely on.
Leading providers such as Vin-X have robust and secure systems linked to their storage provider, London City Bond, and Liv-ex.com.
This arrangement along with an excellent supply network ensures our clients can have absolute confidence in the provenance, price and quality of the wine they acquire and store with Vin-X.
In addition our investor information and analysis ensures that our clients can build profitable wine portfolios over time and are guided to the optimum time to sell.
Vin-X Portfolio Managers
Vin-X Portfolio Managers provide a specialist service that is tailored to their clients’ needs. They agree a wine investment strategy in line with each client’s goals, budget and timeframe. Once invested, they keep their clients informed about their iwines’ performance, market trends and opportunities. We are extremely proud of the service our team delivers and our reputation as one of the most trusted providers of wine investment services.
What trustworthy companies provide
- Who am I dealing with? – The company website should set out information on the directors and key personnel. You may also be able to meet the team and visit their offices. At Vin-X, we regularly host our clients at wine tastings at our wine bars and special events where we can discuss their portfolios in a more relaxed environment and enjoy some great wine.
- Is my investment real and do I own it? – Go to the bonded warehouse and see or touch your investment. The warehouse should recognise your ownership of the wine or whisky in their records. We regularly invite and take our clients to view their wines at LCB.
- Documentation confirming your purchase of fine wine, storage arrangement and insurance – Vin-X clients have an audit trail of documents from purchase invoice, ownership certificates through to sale.
- Secure, specialist storage and insurance - Your investment is valuable and should be stored in a safe enviornment at the appropriate temperature and humidity levels to protect its quality and value.
- Market information – an expert will be keeping you aware of market conditions and advising you on opportunities to buy and the optimum time to sell. Vin-X clients are provided with regular performance updates, market reports and can also receive information via our Newsletter and social channels.
- Testimonials from a reputed source – Trustpilot and Feefo ensure that testimonials are genuine and these are a useful guide to service quality
Key safety factors when checking a company to work with
- Check the company website, address details and directors
- Check Companies House website for the company registration and directors’ details to ensure correct
- Check the Company is registered with the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) and if there are any complaints against them.
Are you concerned about your wine investment provider?
The Wine Investment Association was set up to self-regulate the wine investment market as, like whisky, fine wine investment is unregulated. You can find more information and key contacts should you have any concerns on the WIA website.
Our View
Both fine wine and rare whisky are viewed as luxury assets and attract collectors and investors from all over the world. The wine investment market is well established with mature international supply and distribution networks, an exchange function in Liv-ex.com providing trading efficiency and price transparency and a growing number of recognised, trusted experts providing a specialist service.
The whisky investment market is extremely young, very small, still very opaque in terms of investor information, valuations and market data, and is unregulated. The combination of these factors means that investors need to be careful. Investors should seek out trusted experts to work with if they decide to get involved in this market.
You can see more on how wine and whisky compare as invesments.
For an introduction to investing in fine wine see our Guide and speak to our expert team on 0203 384 2262.