The whisky business appears to want custom to pushing boundaries. Mainstream whiskies are dependable, flavours are fixed, surprises usually are not on the menu. Consumers clearly need the reassurance of understanding that Macallan 18 will all the time be there and that their subsequent bottle will style the identical because the final one they purchased.
But the business does have a gaggle of producers who present the alternative of this continuity, making the most of their small measurement and their lack of legacy to supply pleasure and innovation moderately than Huge Model consistency.
They’re the impartial bottlers, a rising band of devoted flavour seekers who sometimes take one cask at a time from the unique distillers, or at most a small parcel of casks, then launch maybe just a few hundred bottles of one thing which has by no means been tasted earlier than and by no means shall be once more.
The Attraction of Unbiased Bottlings
While the big distillers are tied to replicating a flavour and character that will have endured for many years, these smaller producers provide the alternative. Their merchandise ask ‘what if’, they create one-of-a-kind drams, a fleeting glimpse of what occurs when a spirit is paired with a sure cask in an experiment that may by no means, ever be repeated.
We’re fortunate to have these guys in our business – these are secondary creators who’re rigorously selecting every cask, both to amp it up or just to current nice examples of distillates. For those who love a sure whisky, then it’s possible you’ll simply discover a restricted version model of your favorite drams, curated and launched by a bottler with nice loving care and a spotlight.
Unbiased Approaches
Every of those firms has its personal strategy to how a lot they add to the whiskies they situation. Typically, bottlers are on a mission to current spirits in several methods.
At Goldfinch Whisky, Andrew Macdonald Bennett goals to ‘form and elevate the spirit’ from any one in every of 100 distilleries he has entry to. An instance of this shaping is the Blair Athol, which the corporate has aged individually in Marsala, Port, French wine, and German candy wine casks. When bottled on the similar ABV, they supply an perception into how that distillate works with totally different cask finishes.
In contrast, The Coronary heart Minimize, a London-based bottling firm, doesn’t re-rack or end the casks. Relatively, they associate with distilleries and choose casks that they suppose are extraordinary examples of the distiller’s artwork.
Georgie Bell describes their strategy: “Every Unbiased Bottler has their very own ‘mark’ – and our meticulous cask selecting, distillery partnerships and bottling power, together with the best way we discuss every bottle – is ours”.
Releases are coordinated with the distillery; they approve labels and participate in tastings. The method raises the profile of the distillery and educates the client, if that’s what they need.
Andrew Smith at Little Brown Canine believes that indies like them are an vital a part of the business, catering to the higher whisky world, speaking to “a smaller however vastly engaged, knowledgeable and passionate viewers”.
Offering fascinating, distinctive, and thrilling whiskies for this cohort is their purpose for being. “Earlier than Little Brown Canine was an organization, it was nearly sharing whiskies and cask samples with buddies and saying ‘hey, that is good, you must attempt it!’. This hasn’t modified in any respect, it’s simply the samples obtained larger”.
Whisky For A New Wave of Drinkers
Past the merchandise, what do these small bottling firms purpose to offer to the whisky world? Presumably these new merchandise, packaged in non-traditional methods, untap new markets, talking extra to the feminine whisky drinker or to the youth market.
Whether or not the higher business, notably the PLCs, will ever take the lead from the plucky impartial experimenters is up for debate. 130 million bottles of Johnnie Walker bought every year tells us that there’s a large international demand for the familiarity of ordinary conventional scotch. However those that are searching for one thing distinctive, maybe even a bit bit academic, will discover it from these producers.
Fife Unbiased Bottlers provide twin bottlings showcasing the identical Highland Park spirit in a reasonably normal Oloroso and a really obscure Mourvedre end (no, me neither). Sampling each of those non-identical twins is a strategy to widen one’s data of Highland Park in a means that the distillery might by no means have the inclination to carry to market.
Dram Mor, the bottling firm run by grasp whisky presenter Kenny Macdonald, is blissful so as to add to the number of the scene. Kenny sees his job as the alternative of simply producing the identical outdated, usual.
Bottling firms can take dangers with the spirit that the unique distillers can’t, but their work is enthusiastically acquired by the makers of the spirit: “We now have had excellent suggestions from among the distilleries, with tasting notes by Grasp Blenders indicating that they wish to comply with the lead that we now have set”.
The Unbiased Bottlers Turned Distillers
Turning into a bottler is a relatively low-cost means of turning into a producer with out the multi-million pound expense and lengthy gestation of spirit manufacturing. Bottlers can consider only one a part of the whisky manufacturing course of: the choice and ending. Their merchandise are numerous by their nature in distinction to a distillery, which is tied down by its course of and its terroir.
Not each impartial bottler goals to create its personal spirit, however some conventional bottling firms have taken that route. Gordon Macphail is the granddaddy of all bottlers; they’ve been maturing spirits in their very own kinds since 1895, utilizing their very own casks to mature and create whiskies that could possibly be fairly totally different from the unique. Typically their aged casks have even been referred to as on to re-stock the unique distilleries.
Finally, the lure of creating their very own spirit drew GM into distilling with the acquisition of Benromach Distillery in 1993, after which they constructed the Cairn Distillery in Granton in 2022. Adelphi trod the identical path as a smaller bottler, opening its personal distillery in Ardnamurchan in 2014.
Innovation On An Unbiased Scale
In a world that’s continuously evolving, some bottlers have stepped up the innovation a notch, with some actually imaginative merchandise treading new paths.
Woven Whisky claimed a world first earlier this 12 months with its first absolutely English mix, Pastures New. It’s an ideal assertion of intent, actually, an rising whisky nation celebrated by a bottler that’s pushing most of the historically accepted norms.
Bottled in dumpy, darkish brown drugs bottles, Woven’s whisky is in contrast to every other in the marketplace, breaking one other of the business tropes. This isn’t your grandfather’s whisky.
A New Period For Whisky
These nimble firms are releasing merchandise that ought to delight any whisky lover who’s seeking one thing totally different. They’re usually price efficient methods to pattern among the finest merchandise of the business.
Kenny Macdonald sums it up: “Having a higher unfold of choices on the desk is massively vital, we are able to showcase one thing they might have drunk for years, however in a totally totally different means, retaining whisky enjoyable I hope!”
