Luxury spirits — specifically aged ones — have become viable investment alternatives as evidenced by how much people are willing to spend on them. At a Sotheby’s New York auction in May, The Macallan Millennium Decanter 50 Year Old sold for US$40,000 ($$55,508). Additionally, Lyon and Turnbull sold the world’s largest bottle of Scotch whisky for US$1.4 million, standing 1.8m tall and containing 311 litres of The Macallan 32 Year Old.
“When we launched The Macallan Lalique 50 Year Old at US$7,500 a bottle, my colleague thought I was nuts,” says Ken Grier, the brand’s former creative director. “He was like, ‘Oh my god, how are we going to sell this?!’ That was 2004. The same decanter is going for north of US$250,000 now.”
Grier’s vision helped elevate The Macallan’s limited editions to collectible (and drinkable) art. It encouraged fellow premium distilleries like The Dalmore, Yamazaki and The Singleton to do the same.
“Firstly, Scotch whisky offers a lot of aged products that other categories lack. Secondly, they didn’t have vast quantities. Scarcity drives rarity, high prices and FOMO [fear of missing out],” offers Grier.
“At The Macallan, we combined a wonderful, authentic story with fantastic aesthetics and a distinctive liquid.”
Now, Grier is applying the same formula to his latest obsession: Dictador rum from Colombia.
After retiring from The Macallan in 2018, Grier founded De-Still Creative, a branding consultancy specialising in wines, spirits, luxury, and photography. “Rum shares many attributes with Scotch — it’s dark, layered and incredibly collectible, with a variety of styles. We have some ‘Macallan-ness’ in this product.”
As with the finest whiskies and cognacs, Dictador takes no short cuts with its liquid. The Colombian distillery makes its rum with virgin sugar cane honey. Compared to molasses, from which most rums are distilled, it is perceived as more flavourful.
Due to the climate, rum evaporates more quickly. As a result, Dictador tops up its casks with rums of the same age instead of ‘cheating’ with new make spirit. “That’s what amazed me. Its rums are proper vintages,” says Grier.
Besides its exclusive Lalique special edition, Dictador created a project along with contemporary French artist Richard Orlinski called Dictador Orlinski 5 Decades. To represent the artist’s five decades of life and work, rums from 1966, 1976, 1986 and 2006 were blended and poured into coloured decanters resembling Orlinski’s famous Wild Kong sculpture series.
Dictador is also positioned perfectly for the NFT trend, thanks to this artistic connection. There is a limited quantity of the Dictador Generations en Lalique and the 5 Decades that come with virtual bottle NFTs. Owners can exchange them for actual bottles or resell them on luxury liquor NFT platform BlockBar.
It also recently launched a new NFT-enabled treasury club, ArtHouse Spirits DAO. Members receive US$300 worth of credits to spend on spirits and access to private networking events. It has capped membership at 20,000 members.
“There is potential for Dictador to eclipse Scotch through its fine products, innovation and coolness. However, I don’t know if the rum category will surpass Scotch,” Grier admits.
“The bigger question is whether there are technologies in the future, such as rapid maturation, that can create interesting products you don’t have to wait loads of years.”
Grier believes mezcal shows promise as well, since there are over 200 types of agave to explore, some of which are extremely rare. “It’s harder with white spirits. There is something about the patina of age that gives you that layering, change of flavour, depth and complexity that makes dark spirits fascinating.”
Thanks to the pandemic, ultra-premium spirits will continue to grow as an alternative asset class. “During this time, people experimented a lot more,” he shares. “They were buying more expensive products from different categories. Spirits are fantastic investments because they’re good to look at, great to drink, and you can make a few bucks off of them.”
Regardless, Grier cautions brands not to get too ahead of themselves. “It’s good to have a bit of arbitrage. The problem is that when your brand is so difficult to find and there are long lines and ballots, people are unable to complete their collections. That is when it gets into dangerous territory,” he explains. “I’m a firm believer of always letting your consumers have a way in. I don’t think we have that problem yet, so you don’t have to get greedy. There is amazing stuff at the top end, but there is also great stuff you can enjoy at the bar.”
