For many whisky connoisseurs there is something uniquely compelling about owning an entire cask of your own whisky. As one of the most renowned and characterful distilleries in Scotland, Springbank has a reputation as a unicorn whisky, and casks are no different.
Buying a Springbank cask is a niche pursuit. Very few people can afford it, and even fewer have reliable information on how the process works. Still, if you are considering buying a Springbank cask, or simply want to understand how purchasing a cask would work, this guide will walk through the key points, risks and costs involved.
If you are in search of a Springbank cask for bottling or as a personal asset please do get in touch for a tailor made discussion of your requirements. Email [email protected] with some information or use this page to arrange a consultation at a time to suit you.
Prefer to watch? In this video Mark covers everything you need to know about buying, owning and bottling casks of Springbank single malt scotch whisky.
Where Do Springbank Casks Come From?
If you telephoned Springbank today and asked to buy a cask, you would almost certainly be told, very politely, that they do not sell casks to the public. They have not done so for a long time.
The private Springbank casks that exist on the market come from two closely related historical sources, both ultimately tied back to the distillery.
La Reserve and Mark Reynier
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Springbank was emerging from the downturn that had closed many distilleries. At that time, a London wine shop called La Reserve, owned by Mark Reynier, began representing Springbank.
There had been a tradition of gifting a pipe of port to a godchild, however by the end of the twentieth century that tradition had become impractical and very expensive. Godparents often settled for a case of port instead.
Mark Reynier saw an opportunity; casks of whisky were far cheaper than casks of port so he decided to offer the switch. He approached Springbank, they agreed, and La Reserve began selling Springbank casks to private clients.
The scheme proved popular. But just as importantly, the sales provided Springbank with much needed direct cashflow after what had been a difficult period for the whole industry.
As a Spear’s 500 Top Recommended Whisky Advisor Mark Littler is a perfectly positioned to provide expert advice on all stages of buying, owning and selling casks of scotch whisky.
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Springbank’s own leaflet scheme
On the back of that success, Springbank later began selling casks directly to the public themselves. This was advertised through leaflets included with their bottles. Buyers could send away and purchase their own cask for somewhere in the region of £1,500 to £3,000.
Most of the private Springbank casks available today were bought either through the La Reserve scheme or directly from the distillery during that period. This means the vast majority of private Springbank casks you will encounter were filled between roughly 1991 and 2001—the period those programmes operated.
Unlike some distilleries, Springbank has not historically supplied large volumes of casks into the wider blending and independent bottling trade. That means that whether you are an independent bottler or private individual, casks of Springbank on the secondary market are all coming from the same sources; those original private sales.
When those casks come to market now, the prices they command reflect the distillery’s current prestige, and the casks’ scarcity.
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How Much Does A Springbank Cask Cost?
If you’ve read other of these guides or watched Mark’s videos, you’ll know by now that asking “how much is a Springbank cask?” is a little like asking, “How much is a house in London?”
The answer for both questions is that it depends on the specifics.
With a cask you are valuing the whisky inside it. As well as the age and cask type, the two key numbers for the final value are:
- Litres of liquid in the cask
- ABV of that liquid
Simply put, a sherry butt with 300 litres of whisky at an ABV well above 50% is worth much more than a tired refill bourbon barrel with 80 litres left at 41%.
As a broad guide for the 1990s Springbank casks you might see prices in the region of:
- A starting point around £50,000 for casks with modest fill and a lower ABV.
- Up to £300,000 to £400,000 for exceptional, high strength sherry butts in outstanding condition.
Regardless of the cask you are looking at buying the ABV is crucial. A cask at 40 to 42% has to be bottled quickly because if it drops below 40 percent it can no longer legally be called scotch whisky and its value as a premium product disappears.
Buyers will often assess not only what a cask is today, but also the potential it has for further maturation. That is why the age, distillery and cask type alone are not enough to set a price. Anyone appraising a Springbank cask will begin with detailed regauge data.
Cask Types: Bourbon, Sherry, Rum And Port
Springbank’s private casks span a range of types. The main ones you are likely to encounter are:
- Bourbon barrels and hogsheads – barrels are often the cheapest Springbank casks as they tend to have the lowest remaining volumes now, simply because they started with a smaller volume.
- Sherry butts and hogsheads – both fresh and refill sherry casks are available and the difference can be marked. Over extended maturation the fresh sherry casks can produce incredibly dark whisky that is highly prized in some markets.
- Rum, port and wine casks – while they are attractive to some buyers, rum casks are less common and less “tested” in the market than sherry or bourbon.
The market tends to value sherry casks most highly, largely because they are seen as the most commercial and are usually the fastest to sell.
Rum and port casks can sometimes command a premium simply because they are scarce and hard to source, but they are still judged on the underlying quality of the liquid.
Where Your Cask Will Be Stored: Springbank’s 90-Day Rule
Most private Springbank casks are still maturing in Springbank’s own warehouses, or with Cadenhead’s in Campbeltown. That gives them very strong provenance that some buyers like.
However, this actually causes issues for buyers of Springbank casks as Springbank does not allow new private warehouse accounts.
When you buy a cask from an existing private owner, the distillery will not simply switch the account into your name and carry on. Instead, they give the new owner a 90-day window to remove the cask from their warehouse and send it to another bonded site.
Ninety days may initially sound generous but the reality is that it is a tight window to arrange all the paperwork, coordinate with the receiving warehouse and arrange an uplift from Campbelltown to the new warehouse. The reality is that all of this needs arranging before the sale is completed.
The process is straightforward, but it does require forward planning and ideally the help of someone who knows what they are doing.
Paperwork: Why The Delivery Order Matters
The most important piece of paperwork when you are buying any cask is the delivery order.
This is the document that instructs the warehousekeeper to transfer legal title from the seller’s name to yours.
As part of the purchase you should also expect to receive a contract of sale and some kind of invoice or receipt. However it is important to understand that while these prove ownership, without the delivery order you don’t have control over the cask.
If you do not have direct contact with the warehouse, and the cask is not stored in your name at that warehouse, you are not in control of the cask. That means that moving, regauging, sampling and eventual bottling are not in your hands and that’s why a warehouse acknowledged delivery order is so important when buying a cask of whisky. It’s also why a delivery order becomes even more important when you are buying a high value prestige cask like Springbank.
Managing Risks: ABV, Regauging And Overpaying
In Scotland whisky maturing in a cask experiences evaporation, and the ABV tends to drop over time, this is part of what’s known as the angel’s share. To be called scotch whisky, the spirit must be distilled and matured in Scotland, and be bottled at 40 percent ABV or higher.
This means that once you own the cask, your main ongoing risk management is monitoring the contents of the cask to ensure that it is still technically whisky.
Regauging is how you monitor this. A regauge can be requested by the warehouse and should give you the current estimated bulk litres and alcoholic strength of the whisky, from which you can calculate the RLA (regauged litres of alcohol).
The strength and RLA are what you need to create a final cask valuation. So at the very least you will have a regauge when you buy and when you sell. For older, high value casks, especially where the ABV is approaching 40%, you should regauge regularly—the suggested frequency depends on the cask’s age and current ABV—to ensure your cask is still technically classed as whisky and therefore maintaining its premium status and value.
Overpaying
Unfortunately before you even buy the cask, the biggest risk when buying a cask of whisky is simply overpaying.
In other collectible markets, fraud often means fake products. In cask whisky, storage in HMRC bonded warehouses removes the risk of fakes, and so scammers focus on pricing.
There are so few public reference points for the value of casks of scotch that buyers must rely on the honesty and experience of the person advising them. The other option is to learn how to reverse engineer the economics to create a bottle price. However this can cause issues because consumers aren’t aware of the taxes and other costs that need to be considered.
This is why we created our Cask Calculator. The Cask Calculator creates a per bottle “cost” that includes all taxes and base costs like dry goods and transport. Do ensure you read the guidance within on what the costs include and what it should be compared to.
What You Can Call It: Naming And Labelling
If you are buying a cask of Springbank with the plan to bottle all, or even just some of it, then one thing that often comes as a surprise to new cask owners is that you cannot simply put Springbank in large letters on the front of your bottle. The distillery name is protected as a trademark.
What you can do, and what almost all independent bottlers do, is use a factual geographically correct phrase such as:
“Distilled at the Springbank Distillery”
You are allowed to state where the whisky was distilled, provided you do not present your product as if it were an official Springbank bottling.
Unless you already bottle whisky professionally, it is usually sensible to work with a bottler or designer who understands the legislation around what you can and can’t do on scotch whisky labels.
A simple but important check that should come early in the purchase process is to look carefully at the name used on the delivery order. The paperwork that is confirmed by the warehouse (usually a delivery order) should call the whisky “Springbank” rather than a generic term like “Campbeltown single malt.” The latter would indicate that you don’t have naming rights and that you can’t even use the generic “distilled at” term mentioned above.
While unnamed spirits are no issue if you are aware of what you are buying, it does have a large impact on the price you should be expecting to pay.
Bottling Costs
If you are considering bottling a cask, whether it’s Springbank or anything else, you need to be aware of all the costs and taxes involved. There are three main cost areas to consider: dry goods, design and taxes.
Dry goods
Dry goods cover the physical components of the bottle including: glass, the stopper or cork, a capsule or seal, and a carton or presentation box if you want one. The price for each of these varies considerably depending on the quality and quantity of what you go for.
A standard tall round bottle and basic closure starts at as little as 50 pence per unit. This can increase to around £5 to £6 for something like a Glencairn Supreme style decanter and up to £50 per bottle for very heavy, elaborate decanters. If you require a box then the range gets even wider.
Your choice depends on your budget and your aim. A casino, hotel or luxury retailer may want something more dramatic. A family bottling for gifts may be better served by something elegant but cost effective.
Label design
As well as the cost of the label itself—the paper, printing and aplication—the design of the label is another often overlooked cost with a wide scope. You can design and print labels yourself, hire a local graphic designer or even work with a specialist agency that designs for distilleries and premium independent bottlers. Obviously doing it yourself is the cheapest option, but it may not be suitable if you want something for commercial purposes.
The key is to align the spend with your intentions. A very special Springbank bottling for high profile clients probably justifies professional design that sits comfortably alongside official releases. A private wedding bottling may not need the same level of investment and in fact something personal may work better.
Duty and VAT
Tax is usually the most expensive and most overlooked part of bottling costs. Casks are stored in duty suspense and when you bottle that cask you take it out of duty suspense and the taxes become due. You will need to pay:
- Duty plus VAT on the alcohol in the whisky, currently charged at £31.64 per litre of pure alcohol (your RLA figure) + 20% VAT.
- VAT on the purchase price of the cask, currently 20%.
If you export the whisky for bottling or sale in another country, you can avoid or claim back UK duty and VAT, but you must pay whatever local taxes apply there, and cover the cost of shipping and import.
This is an area where a good bottler or broker can add real value by mapping out the full cost chain before you make any decisions. If you prefer to get an idea of the costs yourself, you can use the Cask Calculator to get a breakdown.
Other Costs: Insurance, Storage And Uplift
Once you own a Springbank cask you incur a handful of ongoing costs.
Storage
Storage costs vary, but at a good independent warehouse you might expect something like:
- Around £100 per year for a hogshead or barrel
- Around £200 per year for a sherry butt
Cheaper options exist, particularly at large trade warehouses handling thousands of casks but whether that is the right option for a private individual is something you need to consider.
Insurance
Insuring a cask is down to your personal preferences and attitude to risk. Almost no cask policies cover evaporation or leaks, because both are considered inherent risks of maturation, not insurable accidents.
Howden Group is the main insurance broker used in the whisky industry. They insure multiple distilleries, warehouses and private clients. As a guide, you can expect to pay around £350 for the first £100,000 of cover, then a smaller additional premium for each further £100,000.
This is not exact, but it gives a sense of scale. It is important to read the policy carefully.
Working with a warehouse you trust to do regular visual checks on the cask is just as important as insurance. This is why it can be beneficial to work with smaller warehouses even if the annual storage costs are higher.
Additional Costs
Some of the additional costs you need to consider are things like regauges and any samples you require. You can expect to pay around £70 per regauge and similar plus shipping for samples.
For Springbank casks you also need to consider the cost of moving the cask out of Springbank within that 90 day window.
Moving a single cask is not particularly expensive on its own, but it does depend on distance and whether the haulier can group it into a larger run. A dedicated run from Campbeltown to a specific warehouse will cost more than adding your cask to a lorry that is already going that way.
Should You Buy A Springbank Cask As An Investment?
Springbank’s reputation, scarcity and cult status make it very tempting to see a cask as a pure investment. In reality, it is more nuanced.
Most people who buy Springbank casks fall into two broad groups:
- Businesses that want a unique product to serve or sell, such as bottlers, hotels, casinos, restaurants or car dealerships.
- High net worth individuals who want a one off bottling to share with friends or as a personal project where the cost or returns are less important than the experience.
For the right cask (with a high ABV and healthy fill level), if you can afford to speculate over ten years or more, and you are comfortable with the risk, a cask might form part of a broader portfolio. Casks of whisky are in the same alternative investment space as assets like watches or art. But there is a lot less publicly available data on pricing for casks, and so working with a trusted broker is crucial.
Where a Springbank cask is genuinely unique is in the experience owning your own cask can offer. You cannot commission your own special bottling of a blue chip Bordeaux. You cannot phone a Swiss watchmaker and ask for a one off run of your favourite model with your name on the dial. With a whisky cask, you can.
You can choose the cask, oversee its care, decide when to bottle and put your story on the label. For many people who buy Springbank casks, that is the real reward.
Handled properly, with good advice and realistic expectations, owning a cask of Springbank can be one of the most rewarding projects a whisky lover undertakes. You are not only buying liquid. You are buying a small piece of Springbank’s story and shaping how it will eventually be shared.
If you plan ahead, insist on proper paperwork, understand the costs, and accept that this is as much about experience as potential speculation, owning a Springbank cask can be an extraordinary privilege.
