Price Rises

[WinBase]

Every week i look at purchasing bottles of my favourite malts, and it seems every week the prices rise on a lot of them by what are ridiculous percentages, much much more than inflation, and its getting to the point it's really starting to pee me off. No doubt many of you all have noticed the same thing - do you think the industry is shooting itself in the foot? - Malt whisky is my first love, but im looking more and more at some brandys and rum's not only for a change but to get better bang for my buck.

[opelfruit]

I pretty much abandoned single malts about 18 months ago. Apart from buying xmas specials in Lidl and Aldi, I've not bought whisky for well over a year.

I've been drinking rum almost exclusively during that period and I'm very happy moved on. Sure, I've been buying stuff that is pretty expensive (the same, or more so than some malts) but what I'm getting quality wise is higher.

It was not only price rises, but the widespread introduction of NAS whiskies, which were being priced fairly high and contained a large portion of young whisky (or just plain average whisky) that pushed me over the cliff.


I can certainly tell you that price rises are nothing new, it's been happened for quite some years now. I thought they were shooting themselves in the foot, and I know of a lot of other people who have ditched whisky, but they do also seem to keep picking up new customers......so I guess they're not bothered
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[Timp]

My love affair with whisky is not quite over yet but I must admit I have started buying some excellent rum and mezcal ( novice to both these but drinking some nice mauritian penny blue as I post ).

I suppose I am looking and researching more about indi bottlings of my favorite whiskies and getting them in for the future. Even so fantastic affordable bottlings like kilkerran 12 last year make the search worthwhile and show some owners still price with the consumer in mind.

Happy hunting

[Quaich1]

The 2017 Budget in Canada just came down yesterday and all "spirits" are going up an additional 7%. As most of you know, most single malts are already 20-35% more in Canada than in the UK.
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"Always carry a large flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake."
W.C. Fields (1880-1946)

[Blackadder]

Scotch malt whisky prices have been rising steadily for at least the past 10 years and its no surprise that they continue to do so. Particularly in the past few years the older aged single malt prices have shot up and are beyond the every day drinking price range of many who previously would have drammed on 18 year old plus whiskies, they have become more of a treat and I would predict the American whiskeys are going to start taking a bigger slice of the whisky market here in t5he UK in the next few years.

[sorren]

Prices will continue to rise unfortunately and until everyone stops buying ( which isn't going to happen ) the companies won't stop the price hikes.. you either get savvy with your buying or you turn your attention to alternatives like Opel and many others have.. Keep your eyes on the indie bottlers as they offer more of a bargain..

[JKD]

Independent bottlers have happily followed on the coat tails of the original distillery bottlers with there pricing, the only thing with the indie bottlers is that there is more hit or miss involved as there tends to be less reviews to rely on for indie bottling's which I didn't mind in the past when they did offer great value compared to the original distillery bottlings.

[James T]

I really don't think the industry is shooting itself in the foot with pricing, they know what they are doing regards pricing. The profit for volume sold continues to rise for them and they will be more than pleased about how there planned worldwide premiumisation of Scotch malt whisky has gone. They will be losing consumers at the bottom end of the malt whisky market who will seek out cheaper alternatives but this will be no great loss to them.

Blackadder I can also see more and more American whiskeys taking a slice of the entry level Scotch malt whisky market because of the lack of quality and high prices at the entry level for a number of Scotch brands and also US whiskey is becoming trendy amongst new young drinkers.

[Whisky Rogue]

I know my whisky budget has multiplied over the years and I get nowhere near the amount of older aged malts as I used to but for me there isn't another spirit that matches Scotch but you do have to pay to enjoy it. It is one of my pleasures in life so I will continue to buy.

[TheWM]

Whilst I too have moved away from drinking whisky exclusively (funnily enough Penny Blue was what persuaded me to give rum a whirl), there is a move amongst spirit producers to move to ultra premium levels.

Already bourbon is moving up in price as is rum. I have been visiting some distilleries in Mauritius and I'm been surprised by the amount of top range priced rum (£150+) for 5 year old single barrel numbers. However these can be explained by low volume, higher quality product (such as sugar cane cut by hand, exemplary cask management, 8% angels share) and in the case of agricole, a more intensive way of making rum (by using raw sugar cane juice rather than molasses which is a by product of making sugar).

That said - there is a market for ultra premium goods, you only have to look at bicycles that cost more than cars, phones that cost more than PCs etc... Consumers are demanding quality and exclusivity and are prepared to pay for it.

That I understand. However, what is happening in the whisky world is that prices are being jacked up. The quality isn't increasing, in fact in general is going down, especially amongst the big players (reuse of casks, NAS, lack of innovation). That's why my money is going to those that are making different or better products.

There will be an end to this - with the huge ramp up of production of whisky it will provide a glut of whisky on the market in a few years. Whether the whisky makers will be able to persuade those who have moved on back to whisky is another question.

[arqueturus]

I'm interested in what price points people feel that the rises are high?

I have a selection on my shelf but my 'dailies' tend to come from the £25 to £50 bracket and these seem to be *fairly* static (I'm thinking Highland Park 12 here).

That said I am a relative newcomer to Whisky so I don't have a long history of prices to consider.

[Forbes]

I thought I had wondered into a rum forum for a minute

Personally I find the prices of the 18 years plus very high in comparison to what they were even just 5 years ago. And more and more 10-12 year olds are creeping above the £40 and even £50 mark