AW: [MM-MALTS-L] Re: What drives price?

[Horst Luening]

> I am always a bit skeptical of some independent bottlings.
> There was a time when distilleries were hurting for cash
> and sold some casks. Today, that is not so much the case.

Hello Mike and Ralph!

A lot of distilleries stopped selling bulk whisky to independent bottlers
appr. 5 years ago. Several corporate headquarters sent out directives.

Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie, Glenfarclas and other former small companies
recognised quite early, which value its brands have and stopped selling bulk
whisky years ago.

There is no longer a need for most of the corporations to sell casks to
third parties for collecting cash. Well, there are still a few relatively
young enterprises which are heavily besoin de cash and sell casks to
everybody. But not many.

The future lies in self generated money. Protect your brand and sell your
own whisky. There is no need to let somebody else sell your whisky. The big
IBs noticed this several years ago and they bought their own distilleries.
The smaller IBs lack the money to do so. In ten years time the market will
be split into two parts. Tier One distilleries with monolithic brands and
IBs which bottle malts from Tier Two.

Is this a big loss? No, I do not htink so in my personal view. The amount of
available casks has reduced drastically and the paid sums have risen so
much, that nobody can afford dumping bad indepent casks into blends any
longer. There are also rumors spreading, that casks are now bundled and you
are not given samples prior to buying.

The bigger IBs therefore started finishing to increase quality. But there
are also bad casks out there for which finishing is no solution. You might
have got bottles from those.

Unfortunately everybody knows about the value of their special casks and
prices will climb steadily until all casks are gone.

What then? We will have to switch to original bottlings. There are already
some small batches from the corporate distillers out there. But these
bottles are very expensive, that we have to increase our spendings or reduce
our consumption.

Regards,
Horst