Before they ask them. Plain English answers across whisky casks, UK gold, tax, storage, selling, and the awkward "is this a scam" question. If your answer is not here, the contact form gets to a real human in one working day.
A UK company that sells two physical, tax-friendly assets to ordinary UK savers: rare Scotch whisky casks and investment-grade UK gold coins. We handle sourcing, storage, insurance and paperwork. Your assets are held in your name in regulated third-party facilities.
Adults in the UK with savings they would like to diversify outside cash and shares. ISA-comfortable, alt-asset-curious, allergic to jargon. Not high-net-worth private clients (although some of our customers are). The minimum entry is £1,200 for gold, £2,500 for a starter cask.
From £1,200, which is roughly three Full Sovereigns at today’s price. A starter (fractional) cask begins at £2,500. A full cask starts at £25,000. Three Sovereigns is enough to open the door.
About ten minutes online to fill in the form. Same checks as opening a savings account: ID, address, source of funds. We then run the verification within five working days and confirm in writing.
Hold for as long as suits you. These are real assets and they take time to mature; we recommend at least three years, and whisky casks specifically benefit from being held longer (more years in oak, rarer stock).
A wooden barrel of new-make Scotch spirit, registered in your name in an HMRC-bonded warehouse in Scotland. The cask has a unique stencilled number on the end, and that number sits on a Delivery Order in your name. You can drive there and stand next to it.
The cask is still yours. The warehouse is independent of the distillery, so even if a distillery is mothballed (or goes the way of Brora or Port Ellen), the cask sits where it was. Any market for "closed-distillery" stock tends to push the value up rather than down.
Yes. You appoint an independent bottler (or use one we recommend), pick a label, agree a strength, and the bottling happens at a licensed plant. You end up with several hundred bottles in your name, with whatever label you want.
A cask loses roughly two per cent of its volume per year to evaporation, the angels’ share. It is one of the reasons older casks are rarer (and dearer) per litre. Your statement shows the current volume on every reading.
Yes. Twice a year, on us. We arrange the time, drive you up to the warehouse, walk you to the cask and let you draw a sample. It is a good day out.
A starter cask is a fractional position in a full cask. You own a defined share, registered in your name. When the cask sells, you get your proportional share of the proceeds. Same legal structure as an investment trust’s shareholder, but for a physical asset.
HMRC bond rules. New-make spirit cannot leave a bonded warehouse in liquid form until duty is paid, which only happens at bottling. Once it is bottled and duty-paid, you can have the bottles delivered to your door.
Bars do not have legal tender status, so they do not get the Capital Gains Tax exemption. Coins from The Royal Mint do. Coins are also easier to part with: sell five Sovereigns, hold the rest, no need to liquidate the lot at once.
Britannias are 1oz 999.9 fine gold coins, around £2,100 today. Full Sovereigns are 7.98g 22-carat coins, around £700. Britannias have more gold per coin; Sovereigns are more granular and easier to ladder in. Most customers start with Sovereigns.
Some self-invested pensions allow physical gold. We can talk you through the rules and help with the paperwork if your pension provider permits it. We are not financial advisers, and we will say so if your situation needs one.
No. You can take delivery any time. Your coins, your call. We send them by insured signed-for courier with tracking the whole way. Most customers split: some at home, some in the vault.
It can and it does. Gold is a long-hold asset and the price moves around. We never tell anyone to put more than a sensible slice of their savings into gold. If you are in any doubt, speak to an independent financial adviser.
Both available. Brand-new Royal Mint coins (small premium over spot) or second-hand coins of guaranteed purity (smaller premium). We will be clear about which you are getting before you commit.
Allocated means your specific coins are kept separately from anyone else’s, in a labelled bag with your name on it, on the vault’s inventory in your name. Not pooled with other customers. If the vault operator went bust, your coins are still yours, separately identifiable.
HMRC treats a maturing cask as a "wasting asset". The argument is that, in theory, a cask will one day be drunk and gone, so the gain when you sell is yours. Same rule that applies to a vintage car. Not a loophole, just a long-standing rule.
Two things. There is no VAT on investment-grade gold under HMRC’s rules. And Sovereigns and Britannias are legal tender from The Royal Mint, which means any gain when you sell them is exempt from Capital Gains Tax. Coin status is what unlocks both.
Yes. Tax rules can change and how they apply depends on your personal circumstances. The whisky-cask wasting-asset rule has been stable for decades and the gold-coin CGT exemption has been in place since 1979, but neither is guaranteed forever. We will tell you if the position changes materially.
If your situation is unusual (large estates, non-UK residency, business assets), yes. We are not tax advisers and we will say so. We are happy to walk through the position with your accountant on a call if that helps.
Whisky casks: HMRC-bonded warehouses in Scotland. Same warehouses the distilleries themselves use. Gold coins: an LBMA-approved London vault, allocated in your name. Or, if you would rather, we deliver gold to your door by insured courier.
A flat annual fee, shown up front. Typical range £40 to £80 per cask per year (including insurance and rotation). For gold, £30 to £60 a year for a vault holding (including insurance), depending on size.
You message us, we find a buyer (usually within a few weeks for gold, longer for casks because they are individual items), and the cleared funds go to your nominated bank account. We charge a small dealing fee, shown up front. You do not have to find your own buyer.
Gold: typically three to five working days from "I want to sell" to money in your bank. Whisky casks: about fourteen days for a buyback offer, four to eight weeks for private buyer or independent bottler routes.
Yes. Insured courier, signed-for, tracked. Most customers leave it in the vault for the insurance, but plenty prefer it under their own roof. You can switch any time.
No, and we are upfront about that. We sell physical assets, not financial products, and physical assets sit outside the FCA’s remit. Whisky casks and Royal Mint coins are not financial instruments. We are not financial advisers and we do not promise returns.
Your assets are not on our balance sheet. Your cask is held in an HMRC-bonded warehouse in your name, on paperwork that is independent of us. Your gold is in an LBMA-approved vault, allocated to you on the vault’s own register. If we ceased trading tomorrow, you would still own your cask and your coins. The warehouse and the vault would simply work with you, or with another administrator, to release them.
The honest answer is that the alternative-asset space has plenty of scams in it, and we’re glad you asked. Four protections sit underneath everything we do: the cask is in your name on the warehouse paperwork (independent of us), the gold is allocated in your name on the vault inventory (specific coins, specific bag), every fee is shown in writing before purchase, and the assets do their own work in the market (we won’t promise a return). Most of the industry leaves at least one of those open; we close all four.
Three differences. One: plain English (read this site, then read three competitors and notice the change in register). Two: fees up front, every line in writing (we earn from a transparent spread). Three: selling is a top-level navigation item, not an afterthought.
If your answer is not above, the contact form gets to a real person who reads it within one working day. No call centre, no script. Or book a fifteen-minute call and we will walk through whatever you want.