In association with Jeroen Koetsier - Whisky expert
For years, Catawiki expert Jeroen Koetsier always bought three bottles of each whisky: one for his collection, one to drink and one to eventually sell. The latter to cover the costs of the first two. Whisky is a pleasure to drink, but the drink can also instil a collecting craze and a commercial spirit. Jeroen Koetsier even had a cellar built to house all of his precious bottles. We’ve spoken with Jeroen to learn more about his special whisky collection.
Brora from 1972
Drinking backlog
The virus took over Jeroen very quickly. “One week later, another vendor convinced me to buy six bottles at once very easily. He told me about the six regions, each with their own distinct flavour profile. Within a few months, I had gathered about twenty bottles. Even when I reached a hundred bottles, I still denied being a collector, I just saw it as a drinking backlog.” When the collection passed the one thousand bottles mark, Jeroen stopped counting.
Hanyu 15-year-old Japanese single malt whisky
Buying and selling
For quite a while, Jeroen mainly collected whisky from the Ardbeg distillery from Islay island and vintages from 1972. “When the digging and building of my cellar in 2006 turned out to be twice as expensive as I’d estimated, I was forced to sell a big share of my collection. Especially my Ardberg collection, which included more than two hundred different bottles at the time, has taken a big blow. With the bottles I had to sell back then, I could have made enough in 2014 to afford a fancy car. Do I regret it? No, I love living here and the whisky is nicely stored.”
Ardberg: Lord of the Isles Whisky
“Since 2006, I started collecting more broadly. I no longer fixate on one distillery that makes you pay too much whenever you finally come across a bottle you don’t own yet. The most important criteria I have for new bottles is that they should taste good. Imagine the value would drop, then at least I don’t have to spill the contents.”
Love of whisky
Jeroen Koetsier is a whisky enthusiast too. He thinks whisky is a fascinating drink. “Even though a distillation costs less than a euro per litre, with the right use of wood and a lot of patience, you can still grow the whisky into a beautiful complex flavour experience. Unlike my other passion, wine, whisky has the advantage that as long as you taste a lot but don’t drink a lot, even the top bottles are affordable for the more modest budgets. If you seal the bottle well after having opened it, it can have a long life; long enough to share that one special bottle, and its costs, with five, ten or even thirty five others.”
Whisky friends
Jeroen is part of a worldwide network of whisky friends. They meet several times per year at whisky festivals. Jeroen went to Scotland with a select little group of real diehards. “In 2012, we started the Brora Academy, a week about the closed Brora distillery, and in February 2016, we had the ‘Pre World War Tour’. All participants contributed at least one bottle which was distilled before World War II. Our visit to independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail and the opening of a Glenlivet 1899 at the Glenlivet distillery were broadcasted by the BBC.”
Gordon & MacPhail
Whisky is everywhere
Jeroen gets his bottles from all over. Directly from the distilleries, almost all of which he has had the pleasure to visit, but he looks online too to expand his collection. “Top bottles in my collection? Hard to say. There are dozens of contenders, each with their own story.” His collection includes more than a thousand bottles and about five hundred books about whisky. An impressive collection, but a real collector keeps collecting. So does Jeroen Koetsier. “Whiskies that were bottled before 1980 are very rare and very interesting to me. I’m always on the hunt for old single malts of which no one knows their existence. Furthermore I’d like to find first prints of some books from the nineteenth century. ‘The Whisky distilleries of the United Kingdom’ by Alfred Barnard is on top of my wish list.”
Price explosion
One thing making collecting a lot harder nowadays, is the price explosion. In the last two years, all the quality bottles have doubled in price. “It’s getting crazier and crazier. You’ll see new releases of €1,000 or more per bottle more and more often. When splitting the costs with thirty people, this is still attainable. But buying three bottles like I used to, is no longer an option. For example, I’ll have to pass on the Brora 1972 for €7,000.”
The goals of a whisky collection
Collecting has changed in nature according to Jeroen. “My collection used to be static, now it’s dynamic. No bottle is holy, every bottle can be opened, as long as you have a really good reason for it. My whisky collection has no end but is a means to gain wonderful experiences and to meet extraordinary people. My collection is most of all a collection of beautiful memories and experiences.”
Are you a whisky collector and looking for special bottles that are missing from your collection? Take a look at our Whisky auction. Or did you buy extra bottles like Jeroen Koetsier to sell? Then sign up as seller and offer them up for auction.