Cask Sale Agreement.

This is an agreement for the sale of one specifically identified whole Scotch whisky cask between THE WHISKY INDEX LTD (company number 17216416, registered office 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ), trading as The Whisky Index ("we", "us"), and the buyer named at checkout ("you"). We sell as principal: each cask is sourced from our supplier at the point of sale, and this agreement is with us directly, not an introduction to a third party, and not a brokered or intermediated sale.

You are buying one whole, uniquely identified cask of Scotch whisky: the distillery, cask number, cask type, strength and volume confirmed to you at checkout and again in your order confirmation. The cask is at the bonded warehouse named on your order confirmation at the time of sale. There is no pooling, fractional ownership, or shared interest of any kind: you own the entire, specific cask, and no other buyer has any interest in it.

When you pay, we issue you a cask schedule naming the specific cask this agreement is for: its distillery, cask number, cask type, strength, volume and warehouse. From that moment that cask is set aside for you and is the goods under this agreement; ownership then passes to you as set out in Section 8. If you agreed to allow a sister cask under Section 6 and one is needed, we issue a replacement schedule naming it before anything is transferred.

This sale does not include physical delivery, import, or bottling of the cask to you, in any country. The cask remains under bond throughout, at whichever bonded warehouse holds it at the time (see Section 9 on moving it to Castlelaw). If you ever want it bottled, exported, or physically moved again later, that is a separate, future arrangement you make directly with the warehouse holding it, not something this agreement provides or promises.

The price shown at checkout is the full price. There are no fees or commissions on top.

Prices may be shown to you in your own local currency, converted from our real GBP price using a daily exchange rate. Whichever currency is shown to you at checkout is the currency you are charged in, for the exact amount shown, locked at the moment of purchase, so it never changes between then and payment. Stripe does not support every currency; where it doesn't, the price reverts to GBP. A refund, if one is due, is made in the same currency and for the same amount you actually paid.

Payment is taken through our own Stripe account, in full, at the moment you buy, not authorised and captured later. Our contract for the sale of your cask is formed at that same moment: you pay, and we commit to securing your specific cask (or, in the rare case that isn't possible, an agreed sister cask: Section 6) and registering you as its owner at the warehouse. A bank transfer instead settles once it reaches us, and is only available for purchases charged in GBP. We accept full, cleared payment only: no deposits, instalments, financing, buy-now-pay-later, deferred settlement, or margin/leverage arrangement of any kind.

You can pay by card for a cask up to £5,000, with 3D Secure. For a cask above £5,000 you pay by bank transfer, using the unique reference we give you, so we can match your payment to your order automatically. There is no surcharge for any payment method.

You are Castlelaw's account holder for your cask. Castlelaw's charges for your first 3 years are yours, and you authorise us to pay them on your behalf, as your agent, at exact cost, with no mark-up. They are part of the all-in price and shown as a separate line on your invoice. The rest of the price is for the whisky in the cask, supplied while it is held duty-suspended in the warehouse, on which no VAT is charged.

We never change our bank details by email. Our bank details appear only on your signed order and in the checkout itself. If you receive a message asking you to pay a different account, do not pay it: call us on the number on our website.

As soon as your payment is taken, we start securing your cask and registering you as its owner, in parallel, not one after another. We tell our supplier which cask has sold, so they can issue us the delivery order for it; separately, and with your consent (given at checkout), we send the warehouse your registration details so your account there can be set up alongside everything else, not after it. You'll see this as "Paid. We're securing your cask now" in your account, with the cask's details, your signed agreement, a live tracker, and a named contact if you need one.

We check the cask is genuinely still available from our supplier at the point you buy, so this stage is expected to complete smoothly. On the rare occasion it turns out the cask has sold elsewhere since it was last confirmed (our supplier's stock list is updated weekly), we move to a sister cask instead (Section 6), never leaving you paying for a cask that no longer exists.

At checkout you can choose to allow a like-for-like sister cask if your original cask turns out not to be available. It is your choice, and the box starts unticked. A sister cask is from the same distillery, is the same cask type, was filled within 12 months of your original, and holds no less pure alcohol. Your signature at checkout (Section 12) then covers the transfer of your original cask or its sister, whichever one you end up owning.

A sister cask is re-priced at 1.6× its own real cost to us, but it will never cost you more than you already paid. If that price is the same as or lower than what you paid, we refund you the difference straight away. If it is higher, we absorb the difference ourselves; nothing further is ever charged to you.

If you did not choose to allow a sister cask, or no suitable sister is available, you get a full refund, to the same payment method, within 14 days, with no deductions. If we ask you whether you would like a sister cask and you do not reply, we refund you in full: silence always means a refund, never a substitution.

Both promises count from the moment your payment clears: at checkout for a card payment, or when your bank transfer reaches us. We promise your cask (or its agreed sister) will be secured within 1 working day of your payment clearing. We aim to register your cask within 7 days of payment. Your order page shows both dates as soon as your payment clears. "Working day" excludes weekends and bank holidays in England and Wales.

If your cask is not secured within 1 working day, or not registered within 7 days of payment, you can cancel with one click, at any time until we catch up. If you cancel, we refund you within 14 days, in full, to the same payment method. You are never asked to contact us or wait for a manual decision.

Ownership of your cask transfers to you at the moment the warehouse updates its own records to show you as the owner, the "registered" step described in Section 5. That update, made directly in the warehouse's own records, is the step that makes your ownership real and legally complete, not this agreement itself, not payment, and not any earlier confirmation from us.

We warrant that we have the right to sell you the cask you end up owning (your original choice, or an agreed sister cask), and that it is free of any charge, lien, or other claim by a third party.

If we cannot secure your cask or a suitable sister, or cannot register you as owner at all, you get a full refund: see Sections 6 and 7 for exactly when and how.

Once your cask is secured, we issue our own delivery order for it, signed by you (at checkout) and by us as authorised signatory, and submit it to the warehouse together with our supplier's own delivery order to us for that cask. The warehouse then carries out both instructions and updates its own records accordingly, the event described in Section 8 above.

Once your ownership is confirmed, we move your cask to Castlelaw at our own cost and risk, in your name, unless it's already held there, in which case no move is needed. We are responsible for the cask for the whole time between your ownership transferring and its arrival at Castlelaw: if it is lost or damaged during that move, that is our loss, not yours. Moving your cask is separate from, and happens after, the ownership transfer itself. It doesn't affect when your ownership became legally complete, and it isn't the point at which title passes.

Castlelaw records you as the owner of your cask (Section 8) and will set up your own direct account for it, separately from your account with us, not through us, and not shared with or visible to us. You'll have direct access to your cask's warehouse records and the ability to contact Castlelaw about storage, insurance, regauging, sampling, a future transfer or bottling, or if you ever lose or need to re-request your documents.

This isn't something we arrange on your behalf: Castlelaw sets this up with you directly and holds operational control of your cask on their side from that point on.

Section 9 describes a delivery order we issue to the warehouse holding your cask, an internal, warehouse-directed instruction you sign as part of your checkout agreement but never separately hold or present. This section is about something different: anything issued or made available to you, this agreement itself, any confirmation, notification, or dashboard record.

None of those is, or functions as, a warehouse receipt, document of title, delivery order, or negotiable instrument. None can be transferred, endorsed, or presented by you or anyone else to claim, move, or release your cask, and none confers any right beyond what is stated in this agreement. The warehouse acts on your verified identity and its own current records, not on presentation of any document you hold.

As part of accepting this agreement at checkout, you sign, by typing your name, your consent to the transfer of your cask (or, if you chose to allow one under Section 6, its sister) into your name at the warehouse. Your signature also authorises the transfer back to us if you cancel, so a cancellation never needs anything more from you. We record your typed name together with the date, time, and the IP address you signed from.

Every cask includes 3 years' storage at Castlelaw, from the date you're registered as the owner. Insurance: arranged separately. Castlelaw's cover terms are being renewed. From year 4 you contract with Castlelaw directly, at Castlelaw's current rates, from about £37 to £187 a year including VAT, depending on cask size and storage, and we'll remind you beforehand. We are not VAT registered. Casks are sold in bond, so no VAT or duty is due unless the whisky is removed from bond. Either way, we move your cask to Castlelaw at our own cost. Other warehouse services, such as regauging, sampling, or moving the cask again later, aren't included.

From year 4 you contract with Castlelaw directly for storage, at Castlelaw's current rates, from about £37 to £187 a year including VAT, depending on cask size and storage, set by Castlelaw, and they may change. We show you Castlelaw's current rates and Standard Conditions before you pay. The Whisky Index never bills you for storage.

Castlelaw's conditions apply to your account from the day the cask is registered to you, including its lien over goods for any money owed to it and its terms on loss or damage. We pay Castlelaw for your first 3 years; from year 4 you pay Castlelaw directly, so keeping your account paid up protects your cask.

Castlelaw isn't responsible for loss or damage. If you want cover, you'll need to arrange your own insurance.

Castlelaw bills monthly in advance, and does not refund part-months.

Castlelaw recommends a regauge for casks over 5 years old; it costs £50 plus VAT.

Removing casks from Castlelaw costs £20 a cask plus VAT, for a removal of 5 casks or fewer.

Your cask stays in bond, held duty-suspended. Duty and VAT become payable only if the cask is removed from bond, and they are paid by whoever removes it. The Whisky Index never removes a cask from bond: the delivery order from our supplier to us and ours to you are submitted on the same day, so the cask passes to you without leaving bond.

You can cancel at any time before Castlelaw confirms the cask in your name, for a full refund.

Castlelaw's confirmation that the cask is registered in your name (Section 8) starts three things: your 14-day period to cancel for any reason; your 30-day right to reject the cask if it is not as described; and the passing of risk in the cask to you.

Every refund under this agreement is full, with no deductions, made to the same payment method you used, and within 14 days of your cancelling. Your signature at checkout (Section 12) already authorises the cask to be transferred back, so there is nothing more for you to sign, and the cask is put back on sale.

To cancel, use the cancel link in your account or contact us. You keep all your statutory rights, and you can use the model cancellation form if you prefer. This is in addition to the automatic cancellation right in Section 7.

Because we are the seller here, we hold your payment and we resolve a dispute about it ourselves. We review disputes using our own verification records and available transaction information. This is an internal review carried out by us, not a formal appeals process, and may result in refunding you or releasing funds to complete the sale, depending on the outcome. There is currently no separate escalation or appeal process within the platform after that decision.

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is a process where an independent body looks at the facts of a dispute and tries to resolve it without you having to go to court. We are not obliged to use ADR and are not currently signed up to any ADR scheme, but we will always try to resolve a dispute directly with you first, using the process above.

Nothing in this agreement removes a right you have by law. Because we are the seller here, relevant statutory rights run directly against us.

This agreement is governed by the laws of England and Wales. If you live in a different country, the laws of England and Wales apply in addition to, and do not remove or reduce, any mandatory consumer-protection rights you have under the law of the country where you live.

Nothing in this agreement, or anywhere on this platform, is investment advice or a promise about future value. We don't tell anyone which cask will rise in value, because nobody, including us, genuinely knows that in advance. Any price context shown is directional only, not a guarantee.