LADYBANK COMPANY OF DISTILLERS CLUB

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Whisky Galore

HERE is a way to combine alcohol and finance, although it seems designed to take your eye off the ball. I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the chance to buy into a club that intends to build a malt-whisky distillery at Ladybank, a village between Auchtermuchty and St Andrews in Fife.

What could be more romantic for lovers of good whisky than to make a one-off payment, occasionally visit the distillery, vote on key decisions and eventually receive a steady flow of hopefully high-class malt whisky? James Thomson, founder of the Ladybank Company of Distillers Club, said: “We will be installing a craft-scale distillery to produce intentionally small amounts to guarantee our whisky’s quality, rarity and value. It’s a wonderful long-term investment, but only if you don’t drink the profits.”

The estimated return is £30,000, but bearing in mind the distillery has yet to be built and the whisky has to mature at least seven years before bottling, that return will be spread over about 60 years. That’s a rate of 3.77% a year. As with any fun investment, you have to factor in the intangible benefits, including bragging rights about having a share in a private distillery. But on paper you should be able to invest £3,250 to make more than £30,000 over that period, without running the risk that something will go wrong with the whisky project.

www.timesonline.co.uk

Investors face long wait for first dram

Ladybank, probably the world's only investment club to pay members their returns in alcoholic beverages, will begin producing its first whisky in 2007, the Fife company's founder said yesterday.

The catch is that investors have to be patient.

This is the brainchild of James Thomson, the former operator of a Scottish travel and events company, who along with Andrew Currie, former marketing director for the Isle of Arran distillery, created Scotland's first and only private-member distillery.

Thomson said the club, a kind of cross between a gentleman's club and an alternative investment society already has 250 members in 30 countries – even before it begins to convert an old disused farmstead in Fife into a distillery in April.

Moreover, members will have to wait until 2017 before the first whisky is matured and they can get their hands on the first bottles – although, the distillery aims to create "one of the world's greatest single malts".

Nonetheless, Thomson intends to capitalise on the continually growing global market and interest in single malt whiskies, and two years ago set his unique business model in motion.
The distillery will also be Scotland's smallest, with a production capacity of around 35,000 litres a year, compared with the larger producers' more common capacity of one million litres a year.

The business model is based around the idea of offering investors £30,000 worth of whisky for a one-off membership fee, or investment, of £3250.

Come the year 2017, investors will then receive six bottles of rare Ladybank malt whisky each year for 50 years, that is until 2067.

In April, Thomson will begin installing a craft-scale distillery to produce "intentionally small amounts to guarantee our whisky's quality, rarity and value". He said: "It's not often realised that the finest single malt whisky is one of the best investments around. Buying whisky in cask that is not yet mature is a true whisky future.

"When large whisky companies make an exceptional product, what normally happens is that most of it gets drunk right away – but the stuff that's kept generally becomes pretty rare and valuable.

"This is a wonderful long-term investment, but only if you don't drink the profits." Thomson also said he plans to install another still for gin production.

Under Thomson's plan, membership will be limited to 1250. The members will become de facto owners of the club, which is also a property company – meaning the investment is secured by the farmstead, thereby mitigating the risk on the long-term investment.

The one-off membership fee will also gradually rise for new members, so the company can raise the total £5m figure needed. It has already raised and invested around £1.6m in the project through previous membership drives.

www.theherald.co.uk

Speed & Pleasure Magazine

Passion for Scotch
By KFL.

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Just like golf, whisky is indisputably synonymous with Scotland. This is not surprising when you consider that Scotland has over 540 golf courses, and that a typical good pub will be stocked with as many as 500 different single malts. For golf and whisky aficionados, the combination is irresistible.

Indeed, it has been said that whisky - - uisge beathe in Gaelic meaning "water of life" - - had a lot to do with a golf course having 18 holes. Apocryphal or not, the story goes that during a St. Andrew's Club meeting in 1858, one of the members pointed out that it takes 18 shots to finish off a fifth of Scotch and that when the whisky ran out at the 18th hole the round of golf was finished.

Located near the small village of Ladybank in the Kingdom of Fife - - the county where golf was played for the first time in 1457, and, coincidentally, where the earliest recorded evidence of whisky production was in 1494 - - the Ladybank Company of Distillers is offering whisky lovers a chance of a lifetime: To become founding investors of a new private distillery with exclusive membership in the Ladybank Club, the most prestigious whisky club in the world.

Limited to 1250 members, the membership fee entitles investors to a reserved share of the distillery's future production of single malts, which will begin in 2005. And for those members who are also golfers, the Club facilities will, in essence, represent the classic 19th hole-after playing a round at the revered St. Andrew's Old Course or other nearby golf links (there are 40 golf clubs in the region), they can sit back in their own private club and sip whisky from their own private stock.

This is a club unlike any other in the world. At its heart is the formation of a traditional craft-scale distillery, an establishment that is set on producing some of the finest—if not the finest—single-malt whisky made in all of Scotland, from the best ingredients that can possibly be obtained.

Production here will be intentionally small—a fraction of that produced by Scotland’s existing and world renowned single-malt distilleries—so that meticulous care can be taken throughout the entire process. The whiskies are destined not for general sale but to become prized possessions and collectors items, available to those that take up ownership through the membership programme.

But it will be far more than just a world-class distillery producing the world’s rarest single malts. As member you are also its owner, and are therefore entitled not only to receive their allocation of whisky from each vintage, but only you can visit the distillery—which will be private and exclusive in its romantic setting amongst some of Scotland’s most beautiful and tranquil countryside—so you may, as owner, discover the magic and mystique behind the creation of Scotch Whisky and be kept closely in touch with the secrets of distilling that are rarely shared with other whisky enthusiasts.

With all the privileges of an owner, you can come to witness, and even assist, in the entire whisky-making process, have your visit personally organized by the distillery manager, and sample your whiskies from different casks as they mature over the years. You can bring your family and friends, and use the distilleries private rooms for lunches and private celebrations – as well as enjoying the myriad other activities that can be enjoyed in the surrounding area.

For more information on membership, please contact The Ladybank Company of Distillers Club Ltd., 21-23 Hill Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3JP, Scotland, UK: Tel: +44 (0) 845 450 1885 or visit www.whisky.co.uk.

Nordmenn kan bli del av skotsk whiskyhistorie

Nordmenns interesse for whisky øker stadig, og noen drømmer til og med om å eie sitt eget destilleri. Nå kan drømmen bli virkelig ettersom Ladybank Company of Distillers – et lite, nytt privat whiskydestilleri i Skottland – tilbyr et fåtall nordmenn å bli deleiere i prosjektet. Så langt har 300 whiskyelskere investert i destilleriet, hvorav en er nordmann.

Ladybank Company of Distillers holder i disse dager på å ta form på den skotske landsbygda, i et område nær verdenskjente golfbaner som St Andrews og Gleneagles samt gamle, vakre byer som Edinburgh. Utbyggingen av dette småskala-destilleriet skjer i en tid da de fleste andre whiskyprodusenter rasjonaliserer og legger ned sine mindre produksjonsenheter. Det mange whiskyelskere ønsker – å ha et lite privat destilleri hvor de som eiere kan få følge utviklingen - blir nå virkelighet.
Whiskyen beregnes å være klar først om ti år, men investorer fra Storbritannia og USA har allerede tegnet seg opp som deltakere i prosjektet. Som første europeere, etter britene, tilbys nå svensker, dansker og nordmenn å få være med og bygge opp dette eksklusive destilleriet.

Seksti nordmenn har mulighet til å bli deleiere til en pris på EURO 3950. I prisen inkluderer blant annet 120 flasker whisky når den er klar. Eierskapet skal dessuten kunne gå i arv.

300 whiskyelskere har alt meldt seg på i prosjektet, hvorav ni er fra Skandinavia. En av disse ni er norsk, mens brorparten er svensker.

Whiskyelskernes fem favoritter
1. Lagavulin
2. Ardberg
3. Laphroaig
4. Highland Park
5. Springbank

For mer informasjon, vennligst kontakt Arve M. Lervik, styremedlem i Norsk MaltWisky Lag, tlf. 9056 9357 - .

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The "Golfer" magazine.

A Toast to Tradition
The Ladybank Whisky Club

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The fates of golf and uisce beatha, the Gaelic name for whisky, have been intertwined for hundreds of years. Golf is said to have been first played about half a century before the official; "invention" of whisky in 1494, although one suspects that scores of intrepid Scots were reaping the rewards of distillation long before anyone remembered to take credit. Both pursuits have become iconic national symbols – it is nearly impossible to enjoy a glass of Scotch whisky without feeling connected to the rolling linksland and the spirit of a people for whom golf is a way of life.

And so it is no accident that a new breed of private whisky club, established in Ladybank, in the Kingdom of Fife, sits just a stone's throw from the golfing mecca of St. Andrews. The Ladybank Company of Distillers, brainchild of Scotch connoisseur and Londoner James Thomson, has gathered 300 founding members hailing from over 23 countries around the world, and is soliciting a select number more. Membership benefits consist of a case of whiskey per year and unlimited access to the Ladybank grounds and clubhouse. The club's state of-the-art distillery will begin producing small quantities of very high quality single malt Scotch beginning in 2005.

The handsome Ladybank facilities, which are built on the grounds of a traditional country estate, feature manicured courtyards, a restored Victorian "secret garden," a clubhouse and dining rooms for members to enjoy sampling and socializing in the most elegant environment. Of course, since Ladybank is a short ride from the Old Course and the other sacred playing grounds of Fife, the privileges offered to members and guests make a perfect complement to any golfing pilgrimage to Scotland. The clubhouse, once completed, will be a perfect place to retire after a round and sample some of the finest whisky in the world. It is a unique way to toast the special gifts of Scotland.

The founding members believe their bottles of Ladybank are not only an investment, but a treasure to he passed down through generations. Memberships may be transferred to sons and daughters-linking new generations to what is promised to be a tasty heritage. whisky.co.uk.

by David Finney

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BBC Good Food Magazine

Buy a stake in a new Whisky Distillery

The perfect gift for one who has everything - membership of the "most exclusive whisky club in the world". The Ladybank Company of Distillers is offering the chance to be involved in the start-up of a distillery in Fife. Membership entitles you to 12 bottles a year for ten years once the first bottling is available in 2014. membership costs will rise as the project nears fruition - it was £1,850 last year. Call the distillery or visit the website.

Scots Magazine

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Ladybank
Scotland’s Most Exclusive Single Malt Whisky

On August 24, 1494, Friar John Cor of Lindores Abbey in Fife converted eight bolls of barley malt into aqua vitae for his sovereign, King James IV; it was the first record of distilled spirit in Scotland, the precursor to what has become Scotland’s most valuable export commodity. Today, the scotch whisky industry, which exports 90 per cent of its product, is worth £2.5 billion a year and is controlled by just five enormous multi-national corporations which are very much focused on mass production. In an age of consolidation and rationalisation, the industry giants are concentrating on their core brands and either shedding or closing the smaller idiosyncratic distilleries, which have traditionally produced many of Scotland’s most distinctive single malts. Instead of lamenting all this from the sidelines, whisky aficionado James Thompson saw an opportunity to go back to basics and establish a unique, farm-scale, private distillery, one which will make the world’s most exclusive scotch whisky. The result is The Ladybank Company of Distillers, a private club focused on producing strictly limited quantities of the very best, hand-crafted whiskies, not for sale, but for its members own use. Bruce Stannard reports from Fife.

Although James Thompson is unashamedly passionate about the history and the infinite subtleties of scotch whisky, he is far from being a starry-eyed whisky romantic when it comes to the business end. In creating the first privately-owned distillery in Scotland for many years, he says he has been guided by one over-riding concern: the desire to give the consumer what he or she wants. His international research has identified a small but extremely keen and knowledgeable group at what he calls “the intimate end of the market,” and these are the people for whom the concept of The Ladybank Company of Distillers is expected to have the strongest appeal.

Ladybank is a private club whose constitution caps its membership at just 1,250 worldwide. When membership was first released early this year the UK allocation quickly sold out. Two hundred and fifty people from all over Britain each paid £1,850. Now, with less than 50 places remaining in the UK, the price of membership has shot up to £2,500. As membership fills and vacancies become scarcer, the cost will rise accordingly and may go as high as £3,500. Forty of the 500 overseas membership places were also quickly snapped up in the first offering. “We are very keen to attract overseas members,” James Thompson says, “and for that reason the price of overseas membership will, for the time being, remain at £1,850. We don’t need 1,250 members to create the distillery. We only need 750. Once we have that core membership in place and the building renovation gets under way, it will obviously be much easier to attract the remaining members because people will be able to come and see what’s going on.”

The Ladybank distillery is being built in beautiful rolling green country just outside the old Fife market town of Coupar, half way between Edinburgh and the ancient university city of St. Andrews. The five acre site, including a small redundant farm steading, with stone mill buildings around a cobbled courtyard, dates from the late 18th century. According to James Thompson, Ladybank will be a very small distillery with some very fine and comfortable club rooms and dining areas in it. “We know there are people throughout the world who are looking for a close personal relationship with a small scotch whisky distillery,” he says, “in much the same way that people who really appreciate fine wine often travel to Burgundy and the great wine producing areas of France in the hope of establishing special relationships with the families who have been behind particular vineyards for many generations. This is why we’ve decided that a club with a limited membership and clearly established rules is by far the best way to go forward. What we don’t want to do is create a major middle-volume brand which might become very valuable and be taken over and amalgamated. We are trying to do something, which is genuinely exclusive and privately controlled. To establish a malt whisky requires an eight to 10-year investment and the safest way to do it is to bring funds in via a private club in which the members are committed and prepared to wait patiently for the results. The membership not only creates the funding but also creates the market at the same time.” The essential ingredient, he says, will be “plenty of patience.” “Everybody who becomes involved realises from the outset that they will not going to be enjoying any fine spirit for at least eight to 10 years. In the meantime they will have the undoubted satisfaction of watching their club grow, complete its membership, convert its buildings, and seeing professional staff come on board. Involvement through all of those stages will help build a stronger relationship among the membership. It’s all to do with having a relationship with something based in Scotland.”

Ladybank is aiming to produce between 25,000 and 35,000 litres of whisky a year, a tiny fraction of the volume produced by a major distiller in a single day, but sufficient, according to James Thompson, to provide for the club’s members and ensure that some is laid down for greater age. Ladybank’s all-important water will come from a natural spring and the spirit is expected to be aged in American oak casks. “It’s in the wood that the enormously complex and subtle chemical changes take place in the spirit,” he says, “and we will be spending a lot of time studying the styles we want to create. We will be consulting at every stage with the membership.” He chuckles as he adds that “the ultimate committee in the club will be the Cask Tasting Committee”. “Once members have been helpful on other committees they can be voted onto the Cask Committee and they will be sent up-dated samples from time to time to see how the different styles are progressing. If you fill a number of casks, you don’t have to wait eight to 10 years to know which casks are the very best. Very often you can see that development early on. We are extremely fortunate in that Scotland has got a lot of incredible expertise in this area and we are already working closely with Dr. Harry Rifkin of Tatlock and Thompson a highly respected firm of analytical chemists. They have developed an acute understanding as to what ingredients are important in the recipe and exactly what is required in the production process to ensure that the highest standards are adhered to. Although Tatlock and Thompson was founded in Glasgow in the 19th century they are now based in Fife so we can literally nip down the road to where one of the world’s leading experts will be doing our analysis. We will be distilling purely to create single malt to be drunk as single malt, not to be used for blending.”

Ladybank’s aim is to created “three whiskies without peer”. The first will be a distinctly peated, island-style, the second will be a natural un-peated style while the third will use a novel aromatic wood-smoked recipe to kiln the barley. The three recipes are currently being tested in the laboratory. Later, there may be additional options through the use of different woods, but as James Thompson points out, “we don’t want to add too many variants otherwise we will never remember what we did in creating the whisky that was everybody’s favourite. We really believe that given an open book and a fresh sheet we can actually produce something as good as can be produced. Of the three core styles the natural is likely to be our bench-mark because we want to see just how much flavour we can get from the barley without masking it with too much peat or sherry.”

Each member will receive an initial allocation equivalent to a case of 12 bottles of whisky a year for each of the first 10 years of production. And although production is expected to start in the spring of 2004, members obviously will not be able to taste the spirit until the spirit is at least eight to 10 years old. Their annual allocations will continue for as long as the club endures. Membership will be transferable and can be handed down as a legacy from generation to generation. “Membership can also be traded,” James Thompson says, “but only back through the club’s waiting list so that we don’t get speculators buying up half the memberships and running their own market. If the club felt that somebody was being speculative with their investment, they may find their membership was in jeopardy because that would be contrary to the ethos of the operation. Although Ladybank whisky will never be available through retail outlets, we believe that at a conservative estimate, 120 bottles of very carefully crafted whisky from Scotland’s smallest distiller will at the very least command a price of £45 a bottle. So you’re looking at £4,000 to £5,000 worth of whiskey. But the real benefit is something beyond price. It lies in having a unique, collectible whisky which you can have for yourself or give as a gift.”

Scots heritage Magazine, Issue 22.
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Financial Times

Investing in a passion for Scotch
By Mark Nicholson

Scotch whisky is an easy enough product to invest in, occasionally too easily post prandium. But for the true Scotch aficionado returns of a financial kind have tended to be limited. Buying stock in Glenmorangie or Diageo is a pretty arid way of indulging a passion for the water of life.

Shelling out the price of a small car on a rare bottle of, say, Queen's Cask Bowmore single malt, is also more likely to provide an exercise in frustration than a gratifying sensual return.

Experts generally advise waiting a decade before expecting a significant return on a bottle of single malt. And only those with deeper-pockets can afford to "Buy two so you can drink one and keep one."

So epicurean Scotch investors may take cheer in the emergence of a third way to invest in uisge beathe. It is by becoming a founding investor in a new distillery in Fife, so becoming entitled to a reserved share of its future production.

Ladybank, as the distillery and its malts will be known, is a club, limited to 1,250 members. And since the distillery will not begin production until next year at the soonest, it is also an investment that is unlikely to yield the first snifter of a return for a few years yet.

But a very exclusive snifter it will be, suggests James Thomson, who was inspired to found Ladybank. "It's the missing link for the wealthier whisky consumer, something to draw on all the things such people like. It's small, gutsy and in Scotland, somewhere exclusive to which people can have an attachment. It's a hybrid, an amalgam of exclusive brand and gentleman's club."

None of the distilleries built in the past century have their own malting facility. Ladybank will use a newly-patented malting process that will permit the distillery to malt five tonnes of barley at a time - a tiny quantity by whisky industry standards.

The notion flowered in Thomson's imagination after having worked with some of the biggest Scotch brands. He created the websites for many of them, ran distillery tours and tastings, and visited whisky shows worldwide. He decided that to create the ultimate experience would require building a distillery from scratch.

Traditional financing would not really be in keeping with the project's nature, his advisers said. "The value a lifestyle investor would get back is not in pounds, shillings and pence," says Thomson. Creating a club was more fitting.

So, for the one-off membership fee, investors will have not just access to the fireside privacies of a cosy riverside club and restaurant, but also an exclusive opportunity to buy 12 bottles of malt a year from each vintage during the first 10 years of production.

Once start-up costs have been met, says Thomson, the club will finance itself by staging events and tastings. For this, he says, the location was fundamental. The distillery needed to be within reach of a wealthy local clientele and an airport. Somewhere between Edinburgh and St Andrews struck Thomson as perfect. His searches took him to the Spencer Nairn estate in Fife where there nestled near the village of Ladybank, a disused mill amid the trees beside a winding burn - with a 90-minute drive to Edinburgh airport.

The site was leased in July last year. Beneath it lay a spring that yielded water soft enough for Scotch. Simultaneously, Thomson was gently tickling up interest in the project through the specialist press and at trade shows.

An initial club membership fee was set at £1,850 ($3,108), which Thomson decided was too low. It rose to £2,500 and will soon rise again to £3,500. By this summer the embryonic project had garnered 250 members and half a million pounds.

It will cost £3m-7m to realise the dream. But work can begin in earnest when membership hits 750, he says. "I'd be disappointed if we were not producing in 2004, but this is not a fast-moving product, and even if we had all the funding tomorrow, we'd not start the restoration until the weather clears in spring next year."

Finding experts to create the recipes for Ladybank malt was easy. By sweet coincidence, one of the leading whisky analysts, Tatlock & Thompson, is based just five miles from Ladybank. Harry Riffkin, their leading analytical chemist, also lives nearby. He is already testing three styles of single malts.

One will be an Islay-style malt. "Because there's a strong following for the peaty island style, we're going to make sure we have at least one peaty recipe," says Thomson.

So what are the chances of Ladybank producing a classic malt? "I'm sure they'll succeed admirably," says Martin Green, an Ayr-based Scotch whisky consultant, who points out that the Isle of Arran Distillery, built in the early 1990s, has already picked up one international award.

But even if the stills are fired up next year, Ladybank's founders will require a nip of patience. "We wouldn't ever imagine it would be anything near the quality of a single malt before eight or 10 years," Thomson says, though he forsees some fun for founder members in "nosing" the first fruits of the new still.

Not that any such delay is putting off Ladybank's early members. "It's not a deterrent," says Charles Hudak, a photographer based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who learnt of the project at a whisky festival in New York.

He has invested despite not having set foot on Scottish soil. "I've never been, though I hope to celebrate my 50th birthday at Ladybank in July next year," he says. "And I don't mind waiting for the Scotch. What I liked about it is that my membership can be passed on to my family. And as for the investment I'm putting out, it's not much, minimal really - I've done stupider things in my life. And after all, this is investing in a passion."

Mark Nicholson is the FT's Scotland correspondent.

Visit the Financial Times Website.

Mallasviskitislaamosta kasvaa klubi

Tom Sandberg Kauppalehti

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Skotlantilainen viskiasiantuntija James Thomson keksi sen mitä vielä ei ollut, rakentaa mallasviskitislaamosta yksityisen klubin.

Tislaamoa pystytetään parhaillaan Fifen maakuntaan Skotlantiin, polveilevien peltojen keskelle.

Ladybank Company of Distillers eroaa muista tislaamoista siinä, että sen tuotteet on tarkoitettu yksinomaan klubin jäsenille.

Vaikka tislaamon lopputuotetta päästään maistelemaan vasta 10 vuoden kuluttua, klubin jäseneksi on liittynyt sankka joukko innokkaita mallasviskin ystäviä. Thomson uskookin vahvasti tislaamon vetovoimaan.

- Ladybankissa omistajille on tarjolla yksityinen paikka, missä he voivat rentoutua ja nauttia kauniista ympäristöstä. Näinä aikoina lukuisia pientislaamoja on suljettu, joten tässä pyritään myös jarruttelemaan epäedullista kehitystä. Tavoitteenamme onkin luoda maailman ekslusiivisin tislaamo ja single malt -viski, Thomson kehuu.

Thomson on värvännyt tislaamonsa palvelukseen alan johtavia kemistejä, jotka paraikaa kehittelevät Ladybankin tulevaa huipputuotteita.

Mallasviskejä on tarkoitus valmistaa useampi erilainen, joukossa ainakin yksi Islay-tyyppinen, voimakkaan turpeinen mallasviski.

Thomson kehuu Macallan-tislaamon tuotteet maasta taivaaseen, joten odotettavissa on ehkä jotakin samankaltaista. Skotlantilaiselle mallasviskille niin tärkeän lähdeveden Ladybank ottaa suoraa tislaamon alapuolelta.

Pohjoismaalaiset kelpaavat

Single malt -viskeissä parhaimman tittelistä Ladybankin kanssa kilpailee moni brändi, joten tehtävästä ei tule helppo.

Mutta Thomsonin tislaamon onkin tarkoitus toimia skotlantilaisena klubina, jonka huomasta jäsenet saattavat vaikkapa poistua läheisille St. Andrewsin ja Gleneaglesin golfkentille tai läheisille taimenjoille. Edinburghin lentokentälle tislaamolta ajaa puolessatoista tunnissa.

Thomson on jo onnistunut värväämään jäseniksi kolmisensataa brittiä ja amerikkalaista, mutta nyt hän hakee jäseniä myös Pohjoismaista.

- Jäseniimme lukeutuu jo yhdeksän pohjoismaalaista, joista kaksi on suomalaisia: yksi taiteilija ja eräs Nokian palveluksessa oleva henkilö. Kuudellakymmenellä suomalaisella on mahdollisuus päästä osaomistajaksi 2 500 punnan sijoituksella. Osaomistuksen voi halutessaan siirtää kerhon kautta eteenpäin. Kaikkian osaomistajia voi olla 1 250 kappaletta.

Thomsonin mukaan hintaan sisältyy muun muassa 12 vuosittain jaettavaa pulloa valmista malttia ensimmäisen kymmenen vuoden aikana.

Hänen mukaansa on enemmän kuin todennäköistä, että jokaisella pullolla on keräilymielessä 40 punnan lähtöhinta. Pienestä tuotannosta johtuen klubi pystyy myös kypsyttämään viskinsä parhaimmasta tammesta valmistetuista tynnyreissä.

- Perinteinen rahoitusmalli ei olisi sopinut tällaisen tislaamon ja klubin rakentamisen taustalle, sillä lifestyle-sijoittaja ei saa sijoituksensa vastineeksi puntia ja shillinkejä, vaan elämyksiä. Ladybankiin sijoittaminen on turvallista. Riskin ottava yritys ja tislaamon omistava yritys ovat erilliset, lupaa Thomson.