PricesData study
UK whisky shelf-price index
The same whisky bottles at the same UK shops cost 1.0% less on 14 October 2026 than on 28 September.
−1.0% the same bottles at the same UK shops, 28 September to 14 October 2026
- Shelf price
- Delivered, one bottle
Dots are days with at least 50 repeat prices to compare; other days have no figure.
- Shelf price
- Delivered, one bottle
Dots are days with at least 50 repeat prices to compare; other days have no figure.
- Shelf price
- Delivered, one bottle
Dots are days with at least 50 repeat prices to compare; other days have no figure.
Each shop’s price for a bottle against its own last price, chained from 100. Switch basket or hide a line; hover or use the arrow keys for the figures.
| Day | Shelf index | Delivered index | Prices compared | Fell | Rose | Unchanged |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100.0 (base) | 100.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| – | – | 14 | 0 | 0 | 14 | |
| – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| – | – | 20 | 1 | 0 | 19 | |
| 99.2 | 99.3 | 804 | 25 | 2 | 777 | |
| 99.0 | 99.1 | 607 | 7 | 6 | 594 | |
| – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Month | Shelf index | Change | Prices compared | Fell | Rose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2026 | 100.0 (base) | – | 0 | – | – |
| October 2026 | 99.3 | -0.73% | 723 | 22 | 6 |
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Compare with official inflation, or see any bottle’s own price history.
- 97.2% of prices didn’t move. Of 1,411 repeat checks, 32 fell and 8 rose.
- −0.73% month on month. 723 listings on sale in both September and October 2026 were cheaper in October.
- Early read. 8 irregular collection days so far; 3 had enough repeat prices to publish.
Source: Uisge Beatha price records: confirmed listings, in-stock observations, 28 September to 23 October 2026. Updated 23 October 2026. Free to reuse with a link to this page.
About this data: method, downloads and sources
How we did it
Why the index skips days. We don’t yet collect every retailer every day. On some days we checked only one or two shops, or bottles we hadn’t seen before, so there were too few repeat prices to compare; those days have no figure. The 23 October collection had only two confirmed bottles, so the latest figure is 14 October. Daily collection will fill this in, and then we plan a monthly release.
Why not average the lowest price? The lowest price depends on which shops we checked that day, so an average would jump whenever a cheaper shop went unchecked. Comparing each shop’s price with its own earlier price means a change in the index is a real change on a real shelf.
Basket. Every 70cl bottle (no gift sets or multipacks) that we have matched to a retailer listing and confirmed by review, in stock on the day. On these dates that was 638 bottles at five retailers (six websites: Loch Fyne Whiskies and The Whisky Shop have the same owner, so we count them as one retailer, but they run separate websites and we track each).
Matched prices. A listing is one bottle at one shop’s website. On each collection day we compare each listing’s shelf price with the price we last recorded for the same listing, at most 35 days earlier. A bottle that appears or disappears doesn’t move the index; only a change in the same bottle’s price at the same shop does.
Formula. The day’s change is the geometric mean of those price ratios (the Jevons formula, one of the elementary index formulas in the ONS CPI technical manual). The index chains these changes from 100 on 28 September 2026. All listings count equally; there are no sales weights.
Gaps. We publish a day only when at least 50 listings can be compared. On other days we publish nothing, keep each listing’s earlier price as its baseline (so a change is counted at the next published day) and add any new listings to the comparison set. We never fill in prices between collection days.
Delivered version. The same calculation on shelf price plus delivery for one bottle to a UK mainland address on the retailer’s standard service: the feed’s charge if it gives one, otherwise the retailer’s published policy as we read it on 23 October 2026 (applied to every date). A listing is compared only with an earlier observation on the same delivery basis.
Monthly. Each listing’s last in-stock price in the month against its last in-stock price in the month before.
What it isn’t. This is a shopping index of shelf prices at the UK retailers we check. It isn’t an auction index, it doesn’t cover supermarkets, Amazon, Master of Malt or The Whisky Exchange, and it says nothing about what a bottle might be worth later.
Download the data
Free to reuse with a link to this page.
Sources
- Uisge Beatha price records: confirmed listings, in-stock observations, 28 September to 23 October 2026
- ONS, Consumer Prices Indices Technical Manual, 2019 (elementary aggregate formulas)
- Inside the Cask, Single Malt Pricing in the UK, July 2024 (one retailer, earlier period)
- Whiskystats monthly price update (an auction index, for contrast)
Prices are the shelf prices we recorded at UK retailers on the dates shown and change daily. Uisge Beatha compares prices; it does not sell whisky or give investment advice. Please enjoy whisky responsibly: drinkaware.co.uk.