Reading a regauge certificate

A regauge establishes what is actually in the cask today. Stale, estimated or inconsistent volume and ABV data can materially distort both value and yield — and it is one of the most common reasons a price agreed in principle does not survive diligence.

What a regauge is

Sampling evaluates quality and suitability. Regauging is separate: it establishes current volume and current alcoholic strength, from which current litres of pure alcohol can be calculated. Both are approved operations that can be carried out while the stock remains in bond and duty stays suspended.

What the document should let you establish

Read a regauge against the rest of the documentary chain, not on its own. You should be able to confirm:

• The cask identity, and that it reconciles with the cask number on the sale contract, the warehouse schedule and the ownership record.
• The date of the measurement, and whether it is current enough for the transaction in front of you.
• Current bulk litres and current ABV, as measured rather than calculated forward from a fill record.
• Who took the measurement, and under whose authority.
• Whether any accompanying sample was drawn at the same time, its condition and seal, and whether it is representative.
• The warehouse and location, and whether these match the rest of the file.

No single document proves every element. Confidence comes from a consistent documentary chain, not from one certificate.

Measurement risk, in practice

The recurring problems are unglamorous and expensive.

• Age used as a proxy for content. A cask grows older whether or not it improves, and it loses volume the whole time.
• Figures carried forward. Original fill data presented as current data, sometimes across many years of evaporation.
• Identity drift. Cask numbers that do not reconcile across the schedule, the certificate and the contract — often a transcription error, occasionally not.
• Unrepresentative samples. A sample that cannot be traced to the cask it is said to represent tells you nothing you can rely on.

How current is current enough

There is no single answer, and any adviser offering one should be treated with caution. It depends on the size of the position, the time since the last measurement, the warehouse conditions, and how much of the price depends on the measured figure. The workable test is commercial: if the transaction price is sensitive to volume and strength — and for a cask sale it almost always is — the measurement should be recent enough that neither party is pricing an estimate.