Whisky.com: The Free Domain Registration That Sold for $3.1 Million After 19 Years
In 1995, Michael Castello typed a single word into the domain registry: "whisky."
Registration was free. Michael was a musician-turned-entrepreneur with a love for Scotch whisky and fond memories of playing at the legendary Whisky a Go Go nightclub. It was a hobbyist's instinct—he had no idea this digital real estate would one day be worth millions.
Almost immediately, the offers started coming.
The 19-Year Holdout
In 1996, a German professor emailed with an offer: $100. Michael declined—he felt the name was worth at least $1,000.
The professor returned in 1997 with $1,000. Michael said no and countered at $10,000.
A year later, the professor came up to $10,000. Michael raised his price to $100,000.
The frustrated academic gave up.
This pattern repeated for nearly two decades. Michael turned down six-figure offers year after year. Just months before the eventual sale, he rejected a $600,000 bid as too low.
It wasn't greed. It was conviction.
Michael firmly believed that a singular, generic domain like "Whisky" held "instant authority" and global appeal—far beyond what any early buyer was willing to pay.
The Domain That Opened Doors
While holding Whisky.com, Michael didn't sit idle. He built a whisky portal with hundreds of pages covering various whisky brands. He attended whisky festivals armed with Whisky.com business cards.
The domain alone opened every door.
Distilleries welcomed him. Whisky enthusiasts treated him as a VIP. The name commanded instant respect "before he had written a line of code."
This reinforced his resolve to wait for the right opportunity—and the right price.
The Broker from Iran
By late 2013, after 19 years of saying "no," Michael Castello finally entertained the idea of selling—but only for a price that reflected the domain's true value.
Enter "Toofun," an Iranian-Canadian blogger behind TorontoDomainer.com. Michael had connected with him while visiting Toronto. The relationship proved fortuitous.
In 2013, over coffee in Los Angeles, Michael agreed to let Toofun broker the sale. His asking price was ambitious: between $3 million and $6 million.
Toofun had never brokered anything on this scale before. But he accepted the challenge.
Finding the Perfect Buyer in Days
Toofun immediately identified the most logical buyer: the owners of Whisky.de, a hugely successful German whisky e-commerce site receiving 17 million hits per month.
Founded in 1993 by Horst and Theresia Lüning in Bavaria, Whisky.de had built one of Europe's most thriving whisky enterprises. Horst produced video whisky tastings and reviews well before YouTube existed. They'd cultivated a massive online community with tens of thousands of forum members.
But they had a ceiling. Whisky is a global product, and to truly expand internationally, they needed a universal brand.
The natural choice was Whisky.com.
When Toofun reached out, it must have felt like fate.
The Negotiation
The Lünings were very interested. But their initial offer came in around $2 million.
Michael, having held firm for so long, was unmoved. It was still below his floor.
Negotiations hit a standoff. Michael refused to accept "lesser offers" after two decades of patience.
Thanks to Toofun's facilitation and Michael's resolve, the buyers ultimately agreed to meet the price.
They raised their bid to $3.1 million—cash, no equity or assets aside.
The deal was struck in late December 2013. Lawyers drew up contracts. On January 2, 2014, the money was wired.
The entire process—from broker agreement to signed deal—took seven days.
The Perfect Match
For the Lüning family, Whisky.com was a once-in-a-lifetime strategic move to "open the door to the world."
Despite dominating the German-speaking market with Whisky.de, they saw the .com as essential for global expansion. As Horst Lüning explained, they wanted a name that would resonate with whisky aficionados from Kentucky to Kyoto.
Within two months of the sale, the Lünings announced plans for Whisky.com to become the English-language mirror of Whisky.de. They ported over more than a thousand articles, nearly 10,000 distillery photos, and their well-established forum.
The domain that Michael Castello had registered for free became the centerpiece of a global whisky hub.
The Numbers
Toofun earned a standard 10% commission: $310,000.
Some observers noted Michael already had a standing $3M offer, meaning he netted ~$2.79M after commission. But without the broker's outreach, that final $3.1M offer from an end-user buyer might never have materialized so quickly.
Michael viewed it as a win-win—though he admitted it was bittersweet letting go of a domain he'd nurtured for so long.
His negotiating philosophy had paid off: "I have no problem saying no. If you truly know the value of what you hold, stick to your guns."
Market Impact
The $3.1 million sale sent ripples through the domain industry.
It was one of the largest domain sales of 2014 and the highest ever for a whisky/liquor-related domain at the time. It narrowly surpassed the 2006 sale of Vodka.com for $3.0 million.
Ron Jackson of DNJournal called it "one of the most talked-about domain sales of all time."
The sale validated several key principles:
1. .COM is King for Global Brands - Even though the Lünings owned Whisky.de (Germany's ccTLD), they still paid a premium for the .com. Owning Whisky.com gave them a universally recognized brand for international expansion.
2. Spelling Matters - The sale was especially impressive given the existence of two spellings: "whisky" vs "whiskey." The Lünings later revealed they'd been offered Whiskey.com many times but weren't willing to pay more than $310K for it—roughly one-tenth of what they paid for Whisky.com. Their reasoning: 90% of high-end connoisseurs search for "whisky" (Scotch) with no "e."
3. Patience Pays - Michael's 19-year holdout became a case study in patient investing. Had he sold for $100K or even $600K earlier, it would have been a decent flip. But nothing like the transformative $3.1M sale that eventually occurred.
4. End-User Value - This wasn't a speculative flip to another domainer. It was a strategic acquisition by an end-user actively using the domain. The Castello Brothers got a record-breaking return, and the Lünings got the exact-match .com that elevated their brand worldwide.
The Broker's Story
Toofun's success with Whisky.com became a feel-good story in domain circles. He was a young guy from Iran, operating out of Canada, who'd never brokered anything close to this scale.
When the Castello Brothers visited Toronto, Toofun kept asking to broker a domain. He was relentless. Finally, they agreed he could try to sell Whisky.com.
He came back with a $2 million offer in two weeks.
After negotiation, he closed at $3.1 million—earning a $310,000 commission and proving the power of relationships and hustle in domain brokerage.
From Free to $3.1 Million
Michael Castello registered Whisky.com for free in 1995 as a hobbyist. He built a portal. He attended festivals. He handed out business cards.
The domain carried weight before he'd written a line of code.
For 19 years, he said "no" to offers that would have made most people sell immediately.
Then, over coffee in Los Angeles, he met the right broker. The broker found the right buyer in days. And within seven days, the deal was done.
From free registration to $3.1 million. From a musician's hobby to one of the most talked-about domain sales of all time.
Sometimes the best investments are the ones you make on instinct—and have the conviction to hold until the perfect buyer comes along.
Michael Castello had both. And Whisky.com became his proof that patience, conviction, and a single perfect domain name can be worth waiting 19 years for.