A Passion for Single Malts

Fans collect bottles for the taste of the whisky and the thrill of finding a rarity at a good price.

By Elin McCoy
Bloomberg Markets April 2008

In a sleek, modern apartment high above the Hudson River near Wall Street, David Stewart, a partner in investment consulting firm Tax Relief Investments Inc., is showing me rarities from his 400-bottle collection of single-malt Scotch whiskies. "The scent is nostalgia in a bottle for me," he says as we put our noses into small, curved glasses filled with a 21-year-old Springbank that is worth almost $600 a bottle. "It's a leather chair in a library with books, maps and a roaring fire--the whole deal."

I inhale the heady mix of butterscotch, flowers and, especially, coconut, which, Stewart says, is the signature aroma of the highly collectible whiskies from this family-owned cult distillery in western Scotland. He first sampled a Springbank in college and has been a fan ever since. His Shih Tzu, Lucy, seems less keen; she barks and backs away at the smell.

Stewart, 36, hasn't gone as far as some passionate collectors. He's wearing pinstriped pants, a white Ted Baker shirt and designer glasses, not a kilt. Single malts are whiskies from only one distillery, in contrast to blends like Johnnie Walker, which contain whiskies from at least two and as many as 40. Scotland's 90 working distilleries create hundreds of limited editions, some in lots as small as 100 bottles, that quickly disappear at prices ranging from $75 to $12,000. From Manhattan to Milan, to Shanghai, a fast-growing group of enthusiasts like Stewart are in hot pursuit of them. Among them are Umberto Angeloni, former chief executive officer of Italian fashion house Brioni Roman Style SpA, and Nano Materials International Corp. CEO Susumu Katagiri.

Stewart stashes most of his collection, which includes in-demand bottles from various distilleries, in two big closets next to his home office. Some prizes, though, are neatly arranged on two bookcases next to the dining table where we're sitting. Unlike wine, single malts--which consist of malted barley, water and yeast--are stored upright and don't age further after they're bottled. And once they're opened, they don't fade for a year.

To show me what makes one limited release from a distillery different from its other offerings, Stewart pulls out a dozen Springbanks. The 1966 Local Barley Cask is from a single barrel whose contents were distilled that year. Generally, only exceptional single casks are bottled separately. Since each one is unique, the whisky from it has a very distinctive taste. Still, quality can vary; it's best to sample before buying. The higher price a single-cask bottling commands reflects both rarity and reputation.

The 30-year-old in the dumpy bottle contains whiskies from several barrels, the youngest of which is three decades old. Time in cask adds complexity and notes of vanilla, and an older age means a higher price. Among five 12-year-olds, Stewart's favorite is the 100 proof, which wasn't diluted with water at bottling, as most single malts are.

All are now worth much more than Stewart paid for them, but he's not an investor. "I think of collecting as deferred consumption," he says with a smile. "Finding a rare whisky is the first thrill." He scours the Internet, frequently ordering hard-to-find bottles from U.K. specialist shops.

Further uptown, I share a dram with another collector, Peter Silver, a dentist whose patients include jazz great Wynton Marsalis. "When it comes to scents and flavors, single malts are the most-fascinating liquids in the world," Silver says. "I was hooked with my first taste of an 18-year-old Macallan."

Silver, 50, is now pretty hard-core. Last year, he tasted more than 1,200 single malts, and he'd just returned from a grand annual private tasting in Las Vegas called Ardbeggeddon, after the popular, peaty Islay malt Ardbeg. Silver, a trumpet player himself, is also a member of the international collector group Malt Maniacs, whose useful Web site is crammed with personal tasting reports and insider information on counterfeits and frauds, which are on the increase as prices climb. "There's plenty of fake Macallan around," he warns.

An impressive, custom-built, glass-doored, floor-to-ceiling cupboard Silver calls his "malt vault" holds most of his 750 bottles and sets of whisky glasses. Like many collectors, Silver originally wanted a bottle from every distillery and headed to Scotland with a long list. He rapidly realized some bottlings weren't all that good. Now he buys only what he loves. I spot Brora, Talisker, Ardbeg and Springbank and several Glenmorangie bottlings "finished" in wine casks. "Older isn't necessarily better," he says. A whisky that spends 60 years in a wooden cask is liable to taste just like wood.

Stewart and Silver began collecting in the 1990s when prices were much lower than they are now, and both bemoan where they're headed. Stewart paid $140 for the Springbank Local Barley 1966, for example, and it's now worth at least $1,000.

"We're in a boom time," says John Hansell, publisher of Malt Advocate magazine, whose 1,300 bottles take up an entire room in his home. "Supplies are getting low because a distillery can't just make more whisky in a day. I see the boom continuing for a decade."

Take legendary collectible Black Bowmore 1964. The Islay distillery first released 2,000 bottles at $100 each in 1993, with two further offerings in '94 and '95. In December, at Christie's first spirits auction in New York since before Prohibition, a three-bottle lot went for $18,000. A new release of Black Bowmore debuts in New York this spring at $4,500.

Neither Stewart nor Silver frequents auctions. Instead, both of them regularly prowl out-of-the-way liquor shops in hopes of finding dusty bottles still bearing their original price tags. "My heart leaps when I find something time forgot," Silver says. "But that's getting harder and harder. The place to hunt now is Japan."

Columnist Elin McCoy is based in New York.emcwine@aol.com

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