BUY A CASK OF PORT ELLEN
At Mark Littler Ltd. we offer honest and impartial advice to help you buy quality casks of Port Ellen whisky at a fair price.
Buy with confidence from a broker with more than 500 five-star reviews from customers just like you.
Buy a Port Ellen whisky cask
Are you looking to buy a cask of Port Ellen whisky? We are specialist brokers with hundreds of five-star reviews and a proven track record of helping and educating people to ensure they make the right decision when they come to buy a cask of Port Ellen.
By choosing to purchase a cask through Mark Littler you gain access to the whole cask market rather than just our own inventory. That means when you come to sell your cask you will not be selling the same product as everyone else (as is the case when people buy from distillery investment schemes), meaning your cask will command a premium.
If you think that a cask or casks from Port Ellen distillery is the right choice for you then we can help you find you the cask that meets your needs. Alternatively, if you are open to suggestions then we can also discuss other potential matches for your cask investment needs.
Download Our Cask Buying Guide
How Mark Littler Can Help You
Let’s assume you have read our cask guide and watched all of our cask investment videos. If not, follow the links and put yourself in an informed position before you buy.
If you think that casks are a good investment for you then we can now help you find you the perfect cask for your needs.
Here is what we do in a nutshell:
Mr Smith comes to us to find three casks, one for each of his three grandchildren. We find him casks a selection of casks from Bruichladdich, Ben Nevis, Caol Ila, Bowmore, Ardbeg, Springbank, Highland Park and Arran to meet his budget and needs. His casks are then moved to our exclusive HMRC Bonded Warehouse.
Mr Smith visits his casks every 2-3 years on his way up to Scotland. He contacts us every Christmas to have 6 bottles drawn from each of his casks.
We have the bottles applied with bespoke labels and he enjoys how the whisky inside his casks is maturing and developing.
When his grandchildren reach 21 they decide to sell their casks. Mark Littler LTD. help them draw a final six bottles from the cask as a keepsake. The casks are then sold in bond and the three grandchildren each use the proceeds from the sales towards a house deposit. Best of all their profits are free from Capital Gains Tax.
How We Evolved As A Broker
We don’t only sell casks to people. In fact, our primary business is selling bottles and casks for people. We are established antiques brokers and have sold everything from medieval gold rings to classic cars.
So how did we get to a position where we were selling casks to the public? Learn more in this short video:
Advice You Can Trust
Since 2016 our aim has been simple – to provide a trustworthy source of information to help people make sound decisions when they are selling their items. To date we have sold millions of pounds worth of antiques and whisky (both casks and bottles) for our clients.
We’re now applying this same logic to help people invest in casks of whisky. Rather than providing sales pitches disguised as educational material, it’s our mission to become the ultimate source of open and honest cask investment guidance.
The information you will find in OUR GUIDE, CASK VIDEOS, BLOG and CALCULATOR is all designed to help you make a balanced decision. We would rather you knew all the facts and didn’t buy a cask than buy one based on ‘fake news’.
The History Of The Port Ellen Distillery
Having been first opened in 1824, the Port Ellen Distillery was one of the later distilleries to open on the south coast of Islay. Constructed by Alexander Mackay, this Port Ellen site was built on an old malt mill which may have already been supplying the Oa Peninsula’s many illicit distilleries. Unfortunately, Mackay struggled in his venture, and so in 1836, the Port Ellen distillery’s lease was taken over from John Ramsay, a 21-year-old who had an uncle who was a distiller in Clackmannanshire.
Ramsay did not only establish the distillery, he also became business partners with the owner of Islay, Walter Frederick Campbell. The pair started up a bi-weekly steamer which plied the waters between Glasgow and the island and helped to cement the whisky industry’s success on Islay. It was also this development that made Port Ellen the main ferry terminal of the island instead of Bowmore.
The Ramsay family kept control of the distillery until 1920 when the Port Ellen Distillery Company, a newly formed organisation purchased it. This company had been started up by James Buchanan and John Dewar. It then merged with DCL five years later, and Port Ellen’s ownership fell into the hands of this giant of the whisky production industry. In 1930, it closed its doors for business and it was not until 1967 that it finally reopened once more – a fact that is often forgotten by fans of this brand.
The traditional distillery buildings found themselves dwarfed by the erection of brand new drum maltings in 1972 which were constructed alongside to supply the malt for the DCL’s 3 Islay Plants – Port Ellen, Lagavulin and Caol Ila. However, during the 1980s the excess whisky loch had a severe impact on Islay. Single malt had fallen out of favour and fewer major distillers were producing it.
Blenders required just a tiny amount of smoky malt for their products and this meant that many of Islay’s distilleries shut up shop. DCL, with its 3 distilleries, was much more exposed to the financial problems of this era and in 1983, it closed the doors of its Port Ellen operation for good. Now its stocks are starting to dwindle, and this has led to its prices rising.
Yet in 2017, plans were touted to reopen the Port Ellen distillery and, assuming planning permission is granted, its site is expected to come into operation once again by 2020.
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