Independent bottlers and their importance in the story of Scotch whisky dates back to the very beginnings of commercially made whisky being sold in Scotland. Long before distilleries sold single malts to the public, companies, starting with Wm. Cadenhead of Aberdeen in 1842, began sourcing and selling whisky from nearby disitlleries. As grocers and suppliers of household wares, they would would sell their whisky by the bottle to its customers, filled directly from the cask.
As demand and interest in whisky grew in the 1900's, the sale of single malt shifted to a larger scale. Distilleries such as Glenlivet, Macallan and Mortlach used the family-owned Gordon & MacPhail of Elgin (Est. 1895) as their licensed bottlers, creating some of the first commercially sold 'distillery bottlings' of single malt whiskies.
In the decades that followed, distilleries around Scotland woke up to the idea of directly marketing and selling their whisky to the public, and the era of commodity single malt whisky began.
With distilleries now seeking a reliable and consistent product available on a global scale, the independent bottlers offered the market something different and quite special - unrepeatable, small batch and single cask whiskies. These expressions were chosen to showcase whisky in it's most revealing, natural and singular state - from small batches of casks through to the product of just a single cask.
Today, independent bottlings remain some of our most sought-after and cherished whiskies. We are very proud to import and stock an extensive range from the world's leading independent bottlers, you can click here to browse our selection.
