Case of the Missing Casks: Investors Claim Distillery Owes Them Nearly $60,000 in Missing Whisky

Two investors claim that Speyside Distillery owes them missing whisky, with a total value of $60,000. (Press Association via AP Images)

At least two investors have reported missing whisky casks from Scotland’s Speyside Distillery culminating in a total value of about $60,000. The distillery has yet to provide an explanation as to where the missing casks have gone, according to the Daily Mirror.

When a reporter from the Daily Mirror reached out to Speyside Distillery, they were met with a statement that the scotch producer was taking the issues “extremely seriously.”

“Unfortunately, the company’s records … are complex, and in some cases, incomplete,” the statement read.

The confusion began with Bill and Kate Miles, a Melbourne, Australia couple who purchased a hogshead cask purported to contain up to 250 liters of scotch from the distillery in 1997 for about $5,000. A portion of that evaporates in what is known as the “angel’s share,” but the remaining liquid could be valued up to the equivalent of $20,000 today. The cask cannot be found.

The majority of these complaints have been addressed to the managing director of Speyside Distillers, Patricia Dillon. Such was the case when Bill Miles complained.

Via email correspondence, Dillon told Mr. Miles that it appeared the company’s previous owners took the cask back due to Miles not paying storage fees. She went on to say she wasn’t completely sure what happened to the cask, due to a lack of comprehensive records.

Miles voiced his confusion, as he claims he never received invoices for storage fees. He says he had purchased casks from other distilleries in the past and was charged the storage fees from his final invoice when the whisky was sold. Storage fees cost him approximately $254 for 15 years’ worth of storage — a nominal fee compared to the value of the whisky.

“We don’t understand how the former shareholders could take back a cask worth thousands of Australian dollars for non-payment of rental fees when a bill for these fees was never sent,” Miles told Dillon in an email.

Miles hired lawyers to contact the distillery. In an email, they told the distillery any form of retention or disposal of the cask was against the law and demanded appropriate compensation. Per Miles, the distillery ignored their requests.

Another case involved investor Sarah Johnson, who tried to locate a cask purchased in 1996 by her father.

Johnson’s cask is twice the size of the Miles’ cask, with a projected value of up to $40,000. Her requests have not been addressed.

“I’ve been fobbed off or ignored, with emails not being answered or replies saying they’ll look into it, followed by nothing useful,” Johnson claimed.

Johnson even offered to go so far as to visit the distillery in person to locate her father’s missing cask, yet Dillon replied the team over at Speyside was still working remotely and she would not be able to visit the facilities.

The team at Speyside claims the investigation process to locate the missing casks is going to take some time, despite the fact that Miles first requested information about his cask in 2018. The company claims Dillon was brought on in 2009 and had no responsibility for locating the casks. It wasn’t until after the company was bought out in 2012 that her duties involved managing the cask program.

Speyside Distillers previously faced litigation over missing casks in 2013 and had to pay the equivalent of nearly $1 million. More information on that case can be found here.

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