Bordering on a scam, trust was broken
Unfortunately, I've had to edit my review from a 5 star to a 1 star and here's why. I took out a cask which many people have said, is a fluid and great experience. I've bought 4 casks with this company and had planned to buy one every year as a small pension boost from when I'm older.
Here's what happens when you try to take a cask out. Now firstly, I appreciate that whisky casks are meant to be a long term investment but in one particular cask, I was trying to store around 7.2k with the hope of taking it out around 3 years time. Due to circumstances, I took it out in 2 years...now did I expect to make money? Heck no. Did I expect to lose money? No...and I was assured that people don't lose money with whisky.
Yet in this case, I've lost around £1,000 because the cask made very little but the company still want 10% and to charge me £150 for the gauge fee.
In short, if you plan on buying a cask, keep this 10% commission in mind and consider how long it will be before you actually make your money back as you're going in on a deficit until the years cycle you up to what you even paid for initially. If you plan on holding it for a long time, I imagine it will even out but do not believe them when they say you won't lose money as I absolutely did and given my custom, I felt pretty mugged.
I'm going to be looking in to this further on a more official note once I've caught my breath (going through a lot right now) to see just how above board all of this. I come from a distillery background and people I've spoken to found the commission and fees to be questionable. With the three casks that remain with this company, again, I will have to look in to what this really means.
My trust, overall, was pretty broken and I wouldn't buy again from the company.