Independent Whisky Bottlers

Behind the bottler, there is also a person

I couldn't talk about independent bottlers without starting with Douglas Laing. It was one of the first major independent bottling houses I discovered, long before I started working in the spirits industry myself.

I like their ability to seek out very distinctive whiskies from a wide range of distilleries, not just the big names. I also enjoy their blending work, particularly their blended malts, which play with the different characters of Scotland's whisky regions.

Asta Morris is a different story. I first discovered a BenRiach selected by Bert Bruyneel at a spirits fair, before I was working in the industry. I still remember that whisky: beautifully refined and remarkably precise.

Since then, I've had the chance to get to know Bert personally and become more familiar with his work. I appreciate his nose, his palate and, above all, the precision of his selections — the very quality that struck me during that first tasting.

I also enjoy following smaller bottlers such as Watt Whisky. Kate and Mark Watt have extensive experience in whisky, but they have retained the freedom and curiosity I value in independent bottlers: choosing what they genuinely want to bottle, without necessarily following the well-trodden path.

And then there's That Boutique-y Whisky Company, with a completely different approach. I love their colourful world, their labels unlike anything else, and their unconventional bottle sizes. Smaller formats also have a real advantage: when a cask is extremely limited, they simply allow more whisky lovers to get their hands on a bottle.

But how do I choose?

I could tell you that I taste absolutely everything before buying it and that my infallible palate has never been wrong.

That would sound lovely.

It would also be completely untrue. 😄

Some bottles are tasted before they arrive at Distillicious. Others are selected based on the trust I place in the bottler's work, the description, the distillery, the type of cask, the maturation, and what I feel the bottle could bring to the selection.

Established bottlers inevitably offer a certain degree of reassurance, but I also enjoy discovering what newcomers are doing.

I look at price as well. A very limited release will inevitably be more expensive, but rarity is not a measure of flavour or quality. A few dozen or a few hundred bottles worldwide are not enough to convince me.

I also try to avoid filling the shelves with more of the same. When a lot of new releases are arriving with sherry finishes, for example, I'll tend to look elsewhere. What's the point of having fifteen different bottles if they all tell more or less the same story?

And above all, I don't choose only for myself

There are flavour profiles I love and others I enjoy much less. But Distillicious isn't my personal whisky cabinet.

I select with my palate, but not only for my palate.

Some whiskies I probably wouldn't choose for my own glass are sought after and loved by other whisky enthusiasts. They therefore have every right to be part of a specialist retailer's selection.

My job isn't to tell you what you should like.

It's about offering different things: trusted favourites and discoveries, approachable bottles and more challenging ones, established names and new independent bottlers, easy-going profiles and a few monsters for those who enjoy them. 😉

Because ultimately, selecting a bottle isn't simply about asking whether I like it.

It's about trying to understand the story it tells, what it brings to the selection… and who it might want to tell that story to.