Liquid Gold

By Matthew Gutierrez · March 3, 2024

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In 2022, when Ruth Gottesman’s husband died, he left her an enormous portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway stock with instructions to “do whatever you think is right with it.”

?? Gottesman, 93, decided what to do: She donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where she once taught. The money will be used to make tuition free for all students in perpetuity. Half of the students there graduate with over $200,000 in debt.

“We have terrific medical students, but this will open it up for many other students whose economic status is such that they wouldn’t even think about going to medical school,” she said.

Get this: because the college is a nonprofit, it can sell all the Berkshire shares without tax liability.

??Today, we'll discuss an alternative asset class: investing in bourbon, and more, in just 5 minutes to read.

— Matthew

Quote of the Day

"People often say there’s lots of uncertainty, but when was there ever certainty in the markets, the economy, or the future? I’m just trying to understand the present."

— Bill Miller

What Else We’re Into

?? WATCH: Five quick insights you can use to think more clearly

?? LISTEN: Fooled by Randomness with Nassim Taleb

?? READ: When and why Berkshire Hathaway could pay a dividend

Trivia

There are more barrels of whiskey in Kentucky distilleries than there are residents. How many barrels of bourbon are aging in the state?

• 5 million
• 10.5 million
• 15 million
• 22 million

Liquid Gold: Investing in the Future of Bourbon

With the rapid growth in alternative investments over the past 10 years, Jeremy Kasler was surprised to find one asset that had flown under the radar. Bourbon.

Having launched several other successful businesses specializing in art, wine, and international property, Kasler quickly recognized the gap in the whiskey market as a compelling opportunity. There was a growing number of investors looking for a way to leverage the rapid growth of American bourbon and whiskey in their own portfolios, but no simple way in which to actually make an investment.

Kasler pounced on the challenge.

Enter CaskX, which Kasler founded in 2020. CaskX allows qualifying investors to secure bourbon and scotch holdings that protect wealth during economic uncertainty while delivering consistent growth. Kasler, the CEO, says the business doubled last year, and whiskey’s popularity growth mirrors that of scotch.?

“If you buy and hold a whiskey investment, regardless of market conditions, that whiskey is more valuable over time because it’s maturing and improving in flavor,” Kasler says. “It’s becoming more desirable and easier to drink. It’s one of the few commodities out there like that.”

CaskX, available only for accredited investors, requires a...