With so many new and excited whisky producers, three years is looking like a really long time to wait for a whisky to mature. And so a number have launched new initiatives to get people involved before there’s any actual whisky to be had.
R&B is setting aside its first 100 casks for a club of pioneers, who will get a bottle each for the first 10 years of the distillery’s existence, among other benefits.
After a year of existence – its first spirit came off the stills in January 2015 – Kingsbarns has started its Distillery Founders’ Club, promising that members will receive the first bottles from the distillery, and, like R&B, providing each with a bottle in the following years.
Arbikie’s going a bit bigger, offering entire ‘1794 Founders’ casks to just 300 investors, for £10,000 each. Cotswolds Distillery, ahead of the inaugural release of its single malt in 2017, has launched a crowdfunding campaign called ‘The Angels’ Share’, where a minimum investment of £1,000 gets you a bottle of that first release, and the highest tier, £50,000, a 50l cask.
