Rare whisky was the most lucrative investment tracked in a new luxury asset index, rising 40 per cent in value in 2018 versus a 12 per cent gain in collectors' coins, which was runner-up.
That compares with a fall of 12 per cent in Britain's main FTSE share index in 2018.
Index compiler Knight Frank's Luxury Investment Index included rare whisky for the first time among alternative assets.
In the 10 years to 2018, the value of rare whisky has surged almost 600 per cent.
The booming price of the spirit most closely associated with Scotland partly reflects surging Asian demand and less stellar growth in alternative assets amid what Knight Frank called "a return to a genuine collector-driven market".
Behind rare whisky came wine and art, whose values increased 9 per cent apiece. Art was the top-performing asset class in 2017.
Last October, a 60-year-old The Macallan Valerio Adami 1926 was auctioned for a record 848,750 pounds ($A1.6 million).
Australian Associated Press
