A SMALL INVESTMENT Too many producers continue to spectacularly misunderstand the requirements of high value whisky sales. The thinkers for the ‘profitable-single-malt’ sector have failed to appreciate the distinction between the couple of thousand Whisky-Enthusiasts and the million(s) of Whisky-Curious. I’ll say it again; there are only a couple of thousand collectors in the world who frequently spend over £100 per bottle. These Enthusiasts are taking an increasingly constant flogging with expensive expressions that are in volumes and at prices that cannot possibly be sustained. Valuable and rare malts have tremendous desirability; heritage, history, rarity and exclusivity—which by definition means expensive. After all, if you want to make something desirable, then make it expensive. The market will decide if it wants to buy. This rant is about the failure to give some thought to expanding the market for collectable whiskies—to bring in lots of new customers. The Whisky-Curious enjoys his dramming, has a few unopened bottles that won’t get opened and can easily resist the charm of a limited edition rare bottling with maximum exclusivity, if only because it’s too expensive. However there are many who could not resist but as yet do not know of the pleasure of the subject matter of whisky and the opportunities to assemble a rewarding and fascinating collection. They can be found among the millions of collectors of stamps, china, golfing or rock memorabilia, vintage or model cars, antiques, wine or miniature bottles... Miniatures? Hold on! That’s how most of the Enthusiasts became so; they started with miniatures! So why for over a year has there been only disappointment for a miniature collector looking for new expressions? My suspicion is the producers’ idleness. I do know that they are failing to expand and invest in the future of their potentially very high return stocks.