Dramfool Cask Club —
Dramfool Cask Club offers a unique opportunity for private individuals to become involved in the ever-popular ownership and enjoyment of single cask Scottish malt and grain whisky.
Many private buyers find it difficult to warrant buying a whole cask of whisky which regularly costs tens of thousands of pounds. Even if they are happy with the large upfront cost, they are often not in a position come bottling that they would want to have hundreds of bottles of the same whisky. This included with the additional thousands of pounds in duty, VAT and bottling costs can be rather off putting.
We offer casks from all over Scotland, both single malt and grain whisky, so are not limited to one distillery or overarching brand. This gives much more variety than the majority of cask ownership schemes.
All prospective purchasers need to be a registered Dramfool Cask Owners Club member. This has to be completed before any purchases can be made. Joining is free and guarantees access to all casks offered through the Club. Dramfool Cask Club makes cask ownership simple, affordable and fun throughout the buying, maturation and bottling process.
What does our system offer and why is it different?
We offer a variety of aged cask whisky already on its way to a preferred bottling age, meaning you will see your bottles filled with older whisky sooner. This differs from many of the offerings currently available from new and established distilleries of new make spirit that needs to be held in bond, most commonly, for a minimum term of ten years before they will allow bottling.
We offer our Club members the chance to purchase one of an agreed number of shares in a cask, usually no more 10 shares per cask. This differs for casks with a larger or smaller volume and on our premium offerings –see each individual offering for details. This means being part of a larger group gives you access to cask purchases that may seem unachievable otherwise.
Once bottled there are no restrictions. Put simply once the bottles arrive with you they are yours to do with what you please drink, gift, auction, swap! What is often not clear with many cask offerings are the restrictions and indeed banning of sales, of your own bottles. Also the legality of privately selling bottles in the UK and abroad comes with many legal hurdles, including Personal Alcohol sales license and Premise Licenses.
What to expect on purchasing your share.
A week before offering any cask/s for sale we will list all its details on our website and make Dramfool Cask Owners Club members aware of the new offerings.
This will include:
Distillery
Cask type
Current Volume (and therefore current number of bottles per share)
Current ABV
Distillation date
Agreed bottling date
Schedule of samples that will be received between initial share purchase and bottling date.
Number of shares available Share price
Any member is limited to one share per cask but are encouraged to buy shares in as many casks as they wish throughout their membership to give as varied and interesting journey with casks.
Cask purchase structures.
Casks will be available over three basic structures:
Young – Normally aged approx. 5 years old with expectation to bottled in 5 – 7 years
Vintage – Normally aged approx. 8 years old with expectation to bottled in 5 – 8 years
Premium – Aged 10 - 20 years (or more) with expectation to be bottled in 5 – 10 years
There may be rare exceptions where we consider bottling earlier than originally advertised if maturation appears to be peaking and longer maturation would result in to much wood influence.
These are very basic guides and decisions will be made on a cask by cask basis and with our in-depth knowledge of different distilleries peak maturation periods etc. all information and time frames will be clearly available before share purchase
What to expect through maturation period.
Interactive ownership. Although the cask remains under bond for the agreed period of maturation it does not mean your ownership sits idle. Throughout the maturation at agreed points (as listed at the original purchase) you will receive a sample of the whisky along with tasting notes to see how the spirit has changed during maturation.
Costs other than initial share.
The initial share price will represent the cost price of your share purchase and the first year’s insurance, storage and sampling fees. Thereafter there will be a yearly charge, payable on the anniversary of your initial share purchase of £120.
This fee will cover all storage, insurance, sampling and re-racking fees etc. there will be no other charges throughout ownership until bottling is undertaken.
Bottling, what to expect.
Upon reaching the agreed bottling date (as outlined at initial purchase) a request for bottling will be made by us to our partner bottlers to be actioned as soon as possible.
All labels will be numbered i.e ‘1 of 200 bottles’, these will not be sequentially numbered so all owners bottles will look the same (and save argument for bottle number 1!). All whisky will be bottled at cask strength, non-chill filtered and natural colour. This gives not only the best but the most unique product connected to your cask.
