Book author and creator of TV shows, Aaron Sorkin says: “The greater fool is actually an economic term. It’s a patsy. For the rest of us to profit, we need a greater fool— someone who will buy long and sell short…it is someone with the perfect blend of self-delusion and ego to think that he can succeed where others have failed.”

While Sorkin wasn’t talking about whisky cask or bottle investment, he could have been. What is now affecting the whisky industry are investment companies or individuals buy whisky, not to drink and enjoy, but purely for an investment.

Will they make money, however, that’s anyone’s guess.

According to a recent articles in VinePair and Forbes, whisky investment is up, with some distilleries producing super-luxury spirts, which are called “investment grade” in the industry. For companies who specialise in assisting cask investment, while the sky is not the limit, they point out that spirit investments do pay better than most returns on the stock market and definitely better than any rates you can get from a bank. (A course, banks aren’t known to charge a storage or bottling fee).

But, as some investors might caution, when something is being offered to the common man for investment, that ship has already sailed, with those posed to make money already onboard.

To hear how whisky investment is affecting independent whisky bottlers, be sure to listen to Distillers Journal’s podcast: ‘Thoughts of a modern whisky baron’ podcast’.