In value terms it's difficult to differentiate between the available whiskies. We stock some famous brands, and they can trade at a premium over the others. But this is not necessarily a good indicator of ultimate financial returns, and as with stocks and shares it is never obvious which will be the winners. Again, just as most investors select a variety of stocks and shares, most of our users choose a sensible and conservative variety of whiskies.

The following are some issues you should bear in mind:

• Single malt whisky is generally considered more valuable than single grain whisky.
• Whisky appreciates in the barrel. So older whisky is generally considered more valuable than younger whisky.
• Different barrels mature whiskies with different results. Sherry and port barrels are harder to source and impart particular flavours, so whisky matured in these barrels are generally considered more valuable than whisky matured in more common bourbon barrels.
• First fill barrels usually mature better than refill barrels, so they are usually considered the more valuable.
• In percentage terms, because storage is charged according to physical volume, the carrying cost of cheaper whiskies is higher in percentage terms than the carrying cost of more expensive ones.
• The historical data suggest that after allowing for storage costs and evaporation the financial returns in the decade from 2006 to 2015 on typical blending single grain whisky was slightly superior to the return on typical blending single malt.
• Over the last decade (to 2015) sales of single malt have grown faster than sales of blended Scotch whisky.

Grain (~75%) and malt (~25%) are the key ingredients in blended Scotch whisky, which represents about 90% of the market, with the other 10% being single malt.

Consequently grain whisky is produced in higher volumes, and from a small number of very large industrial distilleries. It is widely considered inferior to malt and relatively few people enjoy drinking it unblended as single grain whisky.

Malt is more varied and more characterful - and also more expensive to produce. Large numbers of people enjoy single malt whiskies, which do on occasion become very highly sought after, and can therefore provide a high potential upside to the investor.

Both grain and malt require barrels for maturation, and of course both cost the same to store. So the running cost of owning cheaper grain spirit works out as a higher percentage of your investment.

All of these factors suggest that single malt is the better product.

However in considering value you must also consider price, and single grain usually costs materially less than a similarly aged single malt.

So in spite of the superiority of single malt over single grain, over the last 10 years, because of its lower buying price, single grain has usually provided a higher overall return.

We have no historic data on the performance by distillery. We will of course track this data as we go forward.

The WhiskyInvestDirect order board acts as a stock exchange for whisky.

It is directly accessible to all - to you, other users, the industry professionals, and WhiskyInvestDirect itself. On it you will see competing bids and offers from anyone ready to trade their whisky.

These bids and offers produce, at any time, a highest (best) bid, and a cheapest (best) offer, which will usually be very close to each other. The midpoint between them is considered the current price of a whisky.

WhiskyInvestDirect accepts a special responsibility when it comes to its offer prices for new whisky stock. We undertake that stock which we bought wholesale within the previous 2 months will be offered within 2% of the price we paid for it.

WhiskyInvestDirect is regulated under English Law. Its regulatory status is markedly different from the financial services industry.

You are not buying something which under English law is defined, by the Financial Services and Markets Act, as an investment. You are instead buying a tangible product which - through the construct of bailment - you will own outright as your physical property.

This sort of purchase, and the custody of your property, is regulated by a number of laws which are generally more intuitively and widely understood than is financial services regulation. The relevant legislation includes the Sale of Goods Act 1994, Fraud Act 2006, the Theft Act 1968, and the Money Laundering and Transfer of Funds (Information) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations (2019) etc.

These statutes apply broadly to non-financial British businesses and have proven effective instruments for fair regulation of the purchase and sale of goods.

Your whisky is safe from WhiskyInvestDirect's insolvency - a liquidator cannot claim it as an asset of the business.

With many investments (e.g. a deposit account, or a bond) you transfer your property to a business and allow yourself to be treated as a creditor. If that business were to fail this would entitle you, as a creditor, only to a proportionate share of the gross assets of that business, which would in due course be distributed to you by the liquidator.

But through WhiskyInvestDirect your property is held in safekeeping. This means you make no transfer, and your whisky does not become owned by WhiskyInvestDirect. You are not a creditor, you are the whisky's owner.

Consequently the liquidator cannot consider your whisky as the property of the company, and must return it to you in full before any payout to creditors. This is the huge advantage of being an owner of property and not a creditor of a business. You cannot lose your stock through insolvency, only through its physical theft or destruction, and these risks are insured.

Your whisky is stored in HMRC-registered bonded warehouses, managed by the Scotch whisky producers we buy from, all of whom are members of the Scotch Whisky Association.

The whisky producers provide a cask list, which lists all the casks and the spirit maturing in each. We publish the cask lists on our web site.

Every month we also publish online our register of owners and their holdings. (We hide identities by listing holdings against your public nicknames, not usernames.) You can check for yourself that the total on the register matches the total on the cask list.

It is very important that we do not provide you with a certificate! Why not?

A formal certificate changes the legal status of what you own from a physical asset, to a security evidenced by a certificate which purports to be backed by whisky. Suddenly the law has to consider what would happen if there were more certificates in issue than there was whisky backing them.

Title to WhiskyInvestDirect client whisky derives from the register which modern technology (the internet) allows us to put in the public domain.

You will receive a monthly statement which reflects the register. Also you can view the register whenever you want online. WhiskyInvestDirect is structured for you to own whisky, not a security.

Yes, all the whisky is insured. The cost of the insurance is included in the storage charge.

Rigorous quality controls are done before the whisky is filled into cask. Once the whisky is in cask it is rare for it to spoil and any spirit quality issues are almost certainly due to a defective cask which can be isolated before blending or bottling. WhiskyInvestDirect customers are protected from any quality issues by our standard commercial agreement with suppliers.

The whisky you buy is sourced directly from selected leading distillers who have their own high quality standards. We also sample the whiskies we buy to ensure they meet our expectation.

In the UK most people have an annual CGT exemption. In 2023/24 it is applied on the first £6,000 of gains across all their investments, down from £12,300 in the previous tax year. This will be further reduced to £3,000 for tax year 2024/25 and subsequent tax years. If profits on WhiskyInvestDirect are deemed capital gains, then ordinarily the amount of the annual exemption would apply, and profits above the annual exemption are ordinarily taxed at 20%.

There is a possibility that the tax treatment of investing in whisky in bond will attract less tax. There are arguments concerning wasting chattels.

A wasting chattel is an asset with a predictable life of less than 50 years. This applies to the vast majority of whisky casks, but since some casks can usefully mature whisky beyond 50 years it is not a certainty that whisky in bond can be treated as a wasting chattel. We are still awaiting firm clarification from HMRC.

No. Maturing whisky stored 'in bond' is exceptionally rare in being a physical product in which you can invest without paying VAT.

WhiskyInvestDirect does not accept users who are under the age of 18. Also, you should be of legal age to purchase alcohol in your jurisdiction.

Linking a single bank account with your WhiskyInvestDirect account gives you a very high level of security.

In exceptional circumstances, you can link a new bank account to your WhiskyInvestDirect account. When doing so, we will of course need to go through a strict security process to ensure the safety of your account.

You can operate your WhiskyInvestDirect account in British Pounds or US Dollars. When you open your account you choose which of these currencies you wish your account to be denominated in. You may send deposits in other currencies, in which case our bank will convert the funds, at their standard conversion rates, once they reach our client account. Or you can convert the funds before sending your payment. You can ask your bank to do this for you, but you may be able to obtain a better conversion rate by using third-party currency-conversion specialists.

You can sell your whisky at any time. However, you are unlikely to recoup your trading costs if you use WhiskyInvestDirect for very short-term investments.

Generally you should try to avoid exiting within the first few months.

No. It is not possible to reserve an individual cask.

It is possible to have your whisky bottled and delivered to you but the complications and costs of setting up a bottling run are significant.

You should probably think of yourself as an 'in-bond' wholesaler. Under these circumstances you will neither take possession nor sample the whisky.

Your whisky will be stored safely along with the whisky belonging to other WhiskyInvestDirect users. It is possible to have your whisky bottled and delivered to you but the costs are not insignificant. More information on taking delivery is available in our help pages. We do not offer a sampling service.

No. It is not possible to hold your whisky in a SIPP.