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Kingsbarns Distillery launches secure whisky cask ownership programme

The initiative comes in the wake of recent high-profile whisky cask sale scams and puts a strong focus on “safety and trust”, offering “the highest possible standards for purchasing and storing casks”.

Owned by Wemyss Family Spirits, the distillery says the Kingsbarns Private Cask Programme is “a gold-standard model, offering full traceability, secure on-site storage, and in-house oversight”.

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Kingsbarns director William Wemyss said: “For some time, we’ve wanted to launch our own programme, but we wanted to ensure that in doing so, we developed a robust programme that is the gold standard and delivers nothing but the best quality whisky.

“With our Kingsbarns Private Cask Programme, we’ve kept things simple and straightforward. Buyers are purchasing directly from the distillery, not through a third-party or secondary market.

“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in recent weeks with fraudulent cask programmes is people being misled into spending their life savings, sometimes in the most vulnerable moments of their lives, on cask schemes that are either wildly overpriced or entirely fictitious.

“Change is needed, and new standards need to be enforced as the actions of those committing these awful acts of fraud are massively damaging the whisky industry during what is an already challenging period.

“With Kingsbarns Distillery, you know exactly what you’re getting, where it’s stored, and who’s looking after it.

“Those who choose to buy our whisky will be registered as the official owner in our warehouse records and given access to our system to track and virtually view your cask at any time. That level of openness should be the minimum people can expect when buying a cask.”

Kingsbarns said it will ensure each cask is stored on-site in the distillery’s own bonded warehouse, under direct control of the Kingsbarns team, with no third-party involvement.

Buyers are officially registered as the legal cask owner and given a secure login to track their cask’s progress, request samples, and stay informed with regular updates.

Buyers can choose between a First-Fill Bourbon Barrel £3,800 or a First-Fill Oloroso Sherry Hogshead £5,850, each selected to complement Kingsbarns’ new make spirit, filled at approximately 63.5% ABV.