New Make Teaninich Casks, Vintage 2025 & 2026
A small allocation from one of the oldest working distilleries in Scotland, available now in barrels, refill sherry hogsheads, and sherry butts.
About This Allocation
We have a limited number of casks of new make single malt distilled at the Teaninich distillery in 2024, available in three formats: refill bourbon barrels from £1,800, refill sherry hogsheads from £2,400, and sherry butts from £4,200. Every cask comes with full naming rights and a delivery order in the buyer’s name.
Teaninich is a 200-year-old Diageo-owned distillery in the Highlands. It sits in what I think of as the middle tier of the Scottish whisky market: too established to be lumped in with the new wave distilleries, not yet repositioned as a premium brand by its parent company. That combination — genuine heritage, serious capacity, and a price point that has not yet caught up with either — is the reason these casks are worth a closer look.
New make is the cheapest way to buy a cask, and the longest hold. We suggest a minimum of fifteen to twenty years before exit. If you are looking for a shorter investment horizon, this is not the right product, and we would point you toward our young cask offerings instead. If you are buying with children, grandchildren, or a long-term legacy in mind, this is exactly what new make is for.
A Note On Timing
At Mark Littler LTD we have held off on offering new make casks for a long time. The pricing on the wholesale market simply has not been right for the kind of long-term hold these casks demand, and we would rather not offer something than offer it at a price I cannot defend.
The market in 2026 is more competitive than it has been in years. Allocations from established distilleries are reaching the wholesale market at prices that, in my view, finally make sense for private buyers thinking on a fifteen to twenty year horizon. That is the only reason this allocation exists, and it is the reason the prices below are what they are.
Refill bourbon barrel
From £1,800
Best for: a first cask, or buying on behalf of a child or grandchild.
The smallest standard size and the lowest entry point. Barrels have the highest cask-to-spirit surface area ratio of the three, which means strong but balanced wood influence over a fifteen to twenty year hold. If the goal is to put something away for a specific person and a specific moment, this is the format that does that without overcommitting.
Refill sherry hogshead
From £2,400
Best for: most buyers. The sweet spot.
Hogsheads are the most popular cask format in the industry for good reason. The size gives moderate to strong cask influence over a long hold without the risk of over-influence that smaller sherry casks can carry. Refill sherry hogsheads in particular are not easy to source on the wholesale market, and at this price point I think they are the format most buyers should be looking at first.
Sherry butt
From £4,200
Best for: the longest holds, and the lowest cost per litre.
The largest format and the highest absolute price, but the cheapest per litre of alcohol. Larger casks have a smaller surface-area-to-spirit ratio, which means slower wood influence and more headroom for very long maturation. If you are thinking twenty to thirty years rather than fifteen to twenty, this is the right format. It is also the format with the most whisky in it at exit.
All three options come with full naming rights and a delivery order issued in your name by the bonded warehouse. Brokerage and ongoing storage costs are the same regardless of format and are listed in the section below.
A Short History Of Teaninich
Teaninich was founded in 1817 by Captain Hugh Munro, the 8th Laird of Teaninich. Munro had been shot in the head three years earlier during the French Revolutionary Wars and lost his sight in both eyes. He inherited the estate, was forbidden from marrying his fiancée by her father, and chose to remodel his castle and found a distillery rather than retreat from public life. The remodelling work he managed himself, scaling scaffolding by hand. The distillery has been operating, with brief interruptions, ever since.
By the standards of Scotch whisky, Teaninich is genuinely old. It pre-dates the 1823 Excise Act that legitimised most of the Scottish whisky industry, which means it was running and paying its taxes while Macallan, Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, and Bowmore were either still operating illicitly or had not yet been founded. Heritage of this kind is not something a distillery can manufacture or accelerate. Either you have been making whisky for two centuries or you have not.
Today Teaninich is owned by Diageo and has a capacity of around ten million litres, making it one of the larger distilleries in Scotland. Its production setup is unusual: it is one of only two Scottish distilleries to use a hammer mill and mash filter rather than the traditional roller mill and mash tun. This produces a distinctive single malt that has been bottled by Cadenhead, Samaroli, Gordon & MacPhail, and Diageo’s own Special Releases series.
About Mark Littler
Mark Littler is one of around 25 advisers worldwide listed in the Spears 500 as a Top Recommended Whisky Adviser, and a regular contributor on whisky and cask investment to Forbes. His work has been covered by the BBC, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Scottish Field, and Which?.
In 2024 he was thanked on the floor of the Scottish Parliament by Fergus Ewing MSP for my work exposing cask investment scams and protecting the public from them. Watch the speech →
If you have questions about anything on this page, you are welcome to email us directly at [email protected], or to book a call with Hannah using the link below.
How Buying Works
- Enquire. Use the form below or email [email protected] to register your interest. We will send you cask details and answer any questions.
- Contract. Once you have decided, we issue an electronic contract setting out the cask details and the agreement with the warehouse.
- Invoice and payment. Payment is by BACS or wire transfer from a personal account.
- Delivery order. On receipt of payment, the warehouse opens an account in your name and issues your delivery order. The cask is held under your name from this point.
- Maturation. The cask is moved into long-term storage. We suggest a regauge every three to five years; we can arrange this for you when the time comes.
What It Costs
Initial costs
- Cask: £1,800 to £4,200 depending on format
- Brokerage fee: £360 (£300 + VAT) per cask
Ongoing costs
- Storage: £95 per year for barrels and hogsheads, £180 per year for butts
- Regauge: £66, suggested every three to five years
Optional costs
- Insurance: from approximately £350 per year for up to £100,000 of whisky
- Samples: £70 plus shipping per 70cl bottle, one per year
Important Notes
Whisky is an unregulated market. Mark Littler Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Whisky casks are not a specified investment under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Nothing on this page should be taken as financial or investment advice, and you should seek your own professional advice on the suitability of any purchase.
Returns are not guaranteed. The value of whisky casks may go down as well as up, and your capital may be at risk. Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance, and Mark Littler Ltd cannot be held responsible for market fluctuations.
Casks are a long-term hold. New make casks should be held for a minimum of fifteen to twenty years. The volume and alcohol content of a cask drop over time as part of natural maturation, and this is a wasting asset. Casks should be regauged every three to five years to monitor this, increasing in frequency as the cask ages. The contents of a cask must be above 40% ABV to be classed as whisky, and there is a limit to the age to which a cask can be matured.
If any of this is not what you expected, or if you would like to discuss whether new make is the right option for you, please contact me before proceeding.
Reserve A Cask
If you would like to discuss any of these casks, fill in the form below and we will send you full details on availability and the next steps. There is no obligation, and we will only contact you in response to your enquiry.
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Or, if you would rather talk it through first, you can book a call with Hannah using the link below. Calls are without obligation and usually take twenty to thirty minutes.