Yamazaki 2009 Sherry Cask - Keep or Sell?

[IndianaBlues]

New to the forums, I've been looking around for advice but thought perhaps I'd need to ask the question first!

I bought my first bottle of this back in early 2011...and loved it so much I immediately bought a couple more bottles "to keep me going" - that was back when it was £60 a bottle. This was the original expression that won best whisky at the 2010 World Whisky Awards (I seem to recall), obviously it's more recently been eclipsed by it's younger 2013 sibling following last year's Whisky Bible!

Although the 2013 seems to be worth considerably more on the current market, I have noticed that the 2009 is listed as having sold at auction for around the £600 mark recently. Is it worth holding on to as an investment, or do you think I should try to sell it now and expand my collection with some other rarities? This was really the first non-supermarket whisky I bought, but I've since expanded my horizons and have around 50 others to "keep me going" now!

If selling is the best option, can anyone recommend where would be best? I'm based in the North East so I'm guessing I'd have to post it to wherever it would be sold from.

[TheWM]

Question - in 5/10/15 years time you fancy this as a dram (maybe for a special occasion) and you don't have it to hand and the price is £1k plus - what do you do? If you reckon you'll have the money to buy it then go ahead sell. If you'll be kicking yourself that you let it slip out of your collection then keep it. Of course, this is my opinion and you may want to factor that it may not exist in the future due to people drinking them. A lot people end up buying 3 bottles for this reason, drink one, sell one, keep one.

[IndianaBlues]

Hmmm that's the dilemma!

Back when I bought these Yamazaki in general were a mid-range, affordable whisky - over the course of a few months I bought these three (one of which is no longer with us ), the 12, the 18 and the Puncheon. Now they're all but unobtainable, with even the 12 year old going for around £100.

The other issue is, as mentioned elsewhere, since I bought these I've lost my sense of smell and consequently my sense of taste has taken a battering. Whilst I keep eating and drinking things that I know I like, everything's a lot blander than it was previously. It's highly likely that it'll appear a lot more muted than what I remember - is it best to keep alive the memory of something that was great, or risk going back to it knowing that you can no longer fully appreciate every nuance?

[TheWM]

Therein lies another problem. Like going back for a one night stand with an ex and find that she's put on a few pounds and is less energetic than she used to be

[Mr C]

Give it to me and I'll neck it for you - free of charge also

[IndianaBlues]

[sorren]

From what you have said above I would sell, if you thought you would defiantly open it and enjoy it you probably wouldn't be asking the question anyway, as for if you sell now or at a later date then its entirely your choice, the price might go up about more over the next year or so, and it might just crash, if you did open it you could always decant into smaller bottles so you are able to drink over a longer period and it will taste as a newly opened bottle for years to come... You can then swop samples for other whisky and have best of both worlds..

[IndianaBlues]

Resurrecting my own thread, has anyone used HTFW before? They've offered me a decent amount for these, towards the low end of what I'd expect them to fetch at auction. I've tried asking TWE as well but their online valuation form keeps bouncing when I hit Submit.

[torcross]

[IndianaBlues]