神水の倉が進水
Kanpai, ganbei, cheers, skål, and all other ways you greet a friend over a new glass of spirit on such a fine Saturday! This is the launching notice for my whisky investment blog - sending my soul out to the wild seas of the internet on a journey of discovery, learning and new experiences. What better time to do it than on a day signified by its double eights, hopefully carrying some of the most luck in the Asian calendars? (Yes, I know it’s also Father’s Day for the same semi-homophonous reasons - I might as well play the long game on this one!)
For a bit more of what this site is broadly about, I highly recommend checking out “Essence”, where hopefully you can see more as to why I am here, and felt comfortable enough with the place to invite anyone else in.
If you choose to read on for this post, I will let you know how to read “me”, and some of the flavours I will be imparting on this spirit of exploration as the journey continues. Warning - a lot of the new-pot edges have not been refined away in barrel aging my spirit yet, so do not read on if you are looking for the best whisky recommendations for drinking!
類型 - Type
I am not a refined whisky drinker. If I am to highlight how I look at whisky, I broadly have observed 5 different stages of whisky appreciation:
Dorm room drinking - drinking to get drunk; often with the main criteria that it should be cheap, easily drunk, and possibly have enough flavour or burn when mixed with cola to let you know that you aren’t poisoning yourself. Excitement.
Bar room drinking - dedicating some time and money to enjoy a drink, which could be a whisky (just as easily as a cognac, wine, rum, or fancy cocktail). Often at a bit of a higher price point, but not necessarily with a higher appreciation than “this tastes pretty good in a nice tumbler glass with a slab of clear ice”. Occasional gift bottles or the comfort pour when stuck at home also count here. Relaxation.
Whisky taster - someone who is dedicated to trying out multiple different tastes of whisky, coming into it fresh for any reason. Often seeking the milder tastes and starting to appreciate age statements and good blends as a result, and looking rather skeptically at more advanced, challenging flavours. Comfort.
Peat mound climber - those who have experienced a lot of blended, smoother whiskies (most anything blended, majority of Japanese, and the mental image of a Speyside distillery come to mind) and look to branch out to more adventurous turf. This normally leads to the peated, smoky whiskies of Islay; becoming something between a fascination and an obsession. Enthusiasm.
Versatile drinker - someone who has seen the range of what is available on the more aggressive, challenging side of whisky, and then walked back and experienced new notes they could not find before in other expressions, having truly broadened their palate. Enlightenment.
Feel free to share opinions on this - I’m always happy to learn more - but that’s what I have encountered so far. Anyway - I am squarely between 1 and 2, depending on the night! I drink whisky to enjoy it, not to “refine my palate” or “enhance my appreciation”. That refinement is a craft all on its own! It is great if I can strike up a conversation at a bar, but that’s about everything I might ever get out of a glass outside the taste. I don’t even own a Glencairn! Heresy.
投資の方式 - Investing Style
The above makes me emotionally disconnected from different whiskies and their make, pedigree, and other variables. In all honesty, if I am drinking a whisky I probably want it to be a blend (that’s what brought me to Japanese in the first place, but origin alone is not a factor in my drinking choices). That does not mean that I can’t appreciate the value, craftsmanship, or rarity of a particular expression which would make it very attractive as an investment - just that I won’t automatically default to “I’ll only bet on heavily peated 20+ year single cask whiskies because that’s the only good stuff” or some similar mental shortcut. Staying open-minded, diversified, and in a mindset to understand different approaches and trends objectively such that I might fully appreciate them and be early on the journey for new opportunities - that’s the goal.
One investment restriction I will try to keep myself to is to avoid scalping or anything that might seem like it. It is a lot more fun and ambitious to find special bottles to bring to the collection for core investments (so you won’t find a Suntory brand mainline 25+ year age statement label) and then build a portfolio of less rare, less demanded, less appreciated whiskies in the hope that those take off and get found for their value. This blog is not going to focus on where to find cheap Chichibu or directing readers to whoever has carts of Coffey they are looking to get rid of. Simply put, I am not looking to take a bottle away from you if you are primarily looking to enjoy your drink. That said, collectors bottles and special editions are fair game - including experimentation from a known brand or their non-mainline releases. These were often for collectors as well, to increase the primary market price and make everyone involved quite a bit of money, so I have no guilt. I will also not hesitate when buying a bottle of any brand I would not be able to find at a well-stocked duty free.
読み方 - Blog Reading Primer
My investments are centered around three large groupings which will likely end up around 60-30-10 in portfolio allocation by value, but should be equal in terms of bottles. Now, here is the set of categories and how I will approach each, to help you set your expectations.
Core Investments - I will not discuss the specific bottles purchased for my core investments. These are supposed to be rare, somewhat difficult to find, or otherwise underappreciated. It’s standard investment practice - don’t look to impart undue influence on the market you are investing in. In general, I will not bring in a bottle to this portfolio that cost less than US$1,000, and it will not be a mainline release for a distillery. If the distillery is making it difficult to discuss the expression without immediately giving the name of the bottle away, blog commentary will focus on why the company owning the distillery is interesting to watch, what they might have in store, and why bottles from their distilleries could be in demand in the future. Posts will however follow investments, not the other way around - if I mention something in my core I will already have my target allocation at the time of the posting.
Generally, I hope to hold on to these bottles for 3-10 years, targeting anything from 50-100% price appreciation on most bottles. I might release updates if I see that the bottles have changed significantly in price, but broadly these will be the backbone of my investment portfolio and not touched or thought about for a long time.
Satellite Investments - Satellites are built around the core, trying to smooth out dips I might find there, especially due to concentration risk. (There aren’t that many distilling companies in Japan that regularly release investment-value bottles.) These will be structured around themes and be bought at closer to the US$300 - US$1,000 range per bottle (where I might sneak in some at a lower price if I think it fits with a theme) with the hope of a 3-5x appreciation over a few years. If this fails I can then drink what I can’t sell, and what I can sell hopefully pays me back enough to cover the party! My ambition is to buy collections where I find relevant expressions adding to a collection theme, and potentially sell these as a whole should they become rarer in later stages. Here I will gladly discuss the bottle and expression - they will tend to be newer distilleries, have supply, and possibly go out to a broader international market. These are a little bit easier for you to follow as they will be more public, and I might just run some periodic collection tracking on average prices if the satellite’s expressions are on Whiskybase.
Venture Investments - Fun bottles to keep in the drawer for one reason or another. And no holds barred when talking about them. They could just be cheap for who-knows-why, they are untested brands, they have a story I really love, I will visit the distillery the next time I’m in Japan, they have a nice label, or something else that really isn’t a financial reason to invest. If the prices of these whiskies ends up crashing so hard that it breaks the bottles, I won’t cry over spilled malt. They’re my “talking point whiskies”.
余韻 - Finishing Note
This is a passion project - posts and site developments, not to mention look and feel, will be improving. Albeit inconsistently. What I can promise is that 1) there is quite a bit of content backed up waiting to go through the editing process known as “typing”, and that 2) new investments will come in around the end of August 2020 based on a particularly fortuitous alignment of cash flows. That’s when I look to have this raw distillate of myriad thoughts sealed well enough that someone who doesn’t know me can look at this site like a barrel: seeing a relatively unassuming bundle of wood and have hope that what it contains might come out valuable and worthy of its name after at least three years.
If you’d like to talk whisky, investing, write a guest piece, advertise, or connect with me because I owe you a dram (look around the site) feel free to reach out on the Connect site.
乾杯!
