Between the Fèis Ìle in May and the Islay Jazz Festival in September, new releases are scarce, so I used the lull to look at prices. In 2026 they are at their lowest in years. That’s true across whisky in general, not only the Islay bottles I follow most: when heavyweights like Lagavulin and Ardbeg slip, the whole market is sliding.
The whisky market in 2026
The figures point one way. In 2025, Scotch exports fell 0.6% by value and 4.3% by volume, and global sales dropped 3%, a third straight year of decline. After the golden decade, demand has softened: stock built up during the boom and warehouses are full. Several large producers have slowed distilling to avoid adding to the surplus.
The auction market has deflated
The sharpest blow came from the secondary market. Between October 2024 and January 2025 the value of single malt sold at auction fell over 50% year on year, with volumes down a fifth. The Knight Frank whisky index, compiled by Rare Whisky 101, lost 9% in 2024. In 2026 it is still weak, well below the peak of the boom, with the mid-range sliding and only the rarest collectors’ bottles holding. Buyers who had treated bottles as an investment watched those values fall.
What Islay peated whisky costs now
It shows at retail too, where online sellers drag prices down. In the UK the Lagavulin 16 fell to £59.84 on Amazon, its lowest ever, and the Laphroaig 10 to £24.60 during Prime Day. In Italy the picture is similar: the cheapest deals are online, Amazon included, where the Laphroaig 10 sits around €32, the Ardbeg 10 starts near €31 and the Lagavulin 16 from €51. In shops the full price runs higher, about €60 for an Ardbeg or a Caol Ila 12 and close to €90 for the Lagavulin: a gap this wide between full price and what you pay online only opens when there’s too much stock to clear.
For drinkers it is the best value in a long time; a peated Islay single malt was not this cheap two years ago. For the industry it is the end of a run: whisky as an investment has stopped climbing and inflated list prices are easing back. The Ardbeg 10 near €31, one of the best peated whiskies under 50 euros, is the clearest sign of where prices have gone.
