Adelphi Distillery Ltd.

The full name is a bit confusing and possibly misleading, considering this really isn't
a distillery, but an independent bottler. There used to be a distillery by that name
(well, by the name Loch Katrine Adelphi - but it was also known as Gorbals) but
that was closed in 1907. The slightly misleading name really bugs me, because the
high quality of most of their whiskies and the friendly people working there make it
an otherwise admirable company. More information on www.adelphidistillery.com.
 

A. D. Rattray / Dewar Rattray

Dewar Rattray was founded (some would claim it was re-founded) in the year 2004 by
Tim Morrison who had been connected with Bowmore in the past. They had to change
their name to A. D. Rattray recently to avoid confusion with the well known Dewar's
brand. Their portfolio includes a range of independent bottlings, but especially in the
beginning most of their efforst were focused on their Stronachie bastard malt whisky
(which is most likely actually made at the Benrinnes distillery). According to their site:
"Today the company's principal purpose is to bottle unusual and exclusive casks of Scotch
Whisky, with each one chosen to reflect the different styles of the (...) regions of Scotland. Whether from Mr Morrison's own stock or independently sourced, only casks (...) of
exceptional quality are bottled under the (...) label and released into selected markets.".
 

Angus Dundee

Angus Dundee is an independent bottler and blender from London with more than fifty years
of experience in the whisky world. In the past their focus has been mainly on blended whisky,
but in recent years they acquired two malt whisky distilleries; Glencadam and Tomintoul. One
of their 'flagship' brands is the Glen Parker 'bastard malt' (= a single malt from an undisclosed
distillery). They also produce independent bottlings under the names Mackillop's Choice and
Montgomerie's (and possibly also the generic MacKullick's Choice brand that I found in a French
supermarket. Those are available in a number of markets, but in some countries (like Holland)
expressions are diffucult to find. With the possible exception of their Montgomerie's brand, the
focus of the company seems to be mostly on fairly generic 'volume' whiskies.
 

Bacardi

Although the 'Bacardi' brand is most famous for their mass marketed
rums, they also have interests in the Scotch whisky industry via their
subsidiary John Dewar & Sons. When I write this latest update (the
winter of 2010) Bacardi owns five malt whisky distileries; Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, MacDuff and Royal Brackla. The production
of single malts is only a minor part of the activities of Bacardi; the
company sells more than 200 million bottles of liquor per year, which
represented a total value of over $5.500.000.000,- USD in 2007.
Bacardi is the fifth largest producer of Scotch malt whisky.
 
Bacardi has diversified their liquor portfolio in recent years. In 1992
they acquired Martini & Rossi, the producer of Martini vermouth and
sparkling wines. In 1998, Bacardi acquired John Dewar & Sons, as
well as Bombay Sapphire gin for $2 billion. Other brands in Bacardi's
'stable' include Amaretto di Saronno and Drambuie whisky liqueur.

 

The whisky world is a murky one, with many distilleries and independent bottlers releasing
different 'brands' of whisky. For example, Douglas Laing has several series in its portfolio,
including 'Old Malt Cask' and 'McGibbon's Provenance'. And then there are the companies that
own both distilleries and bottlers - or bottlers that effectively own distilleries and vice versa.
To complicate things further, sometimes the ownership is divided across several companies.
 
Fortunately, you don't need to know all the specific details about the company that owns
a distillery to enjoy the whisky they make there. That being said, when you're looking for
your next whisky to enjoy it helps to know a little bit about the distillery where that whisky
was made. The more you know about the distillery and possible alternatives, the better
you will be able to determine your chances that the whisky you're planning to purchase
will actually be any good. At today's prices for single malts, you'd want to avoid mistakes...

The same is true for bottlers; just like there are 'good' and 'bad' distilleries (at a given point in time),
there are bottlers that have released mostly 'better' or 'worse' bottlings within a certain timeframe.
When I started work on this 'Distillery Data' section shortly after the start of this millennium I already
had plans to include a site section especially for bottlers, but by the time I had finally 'finished' the
site section there already was a excellent resource available on the web; 'Harry's (in)complete Guide
to Independent Bottlers of Single Malt Scotch Whiskies'. You can find the PDF at Konstantin's website.

Beam Global

The Beam Global company is owned by Fortune Brands - a massive holding company that was founded
in 1969 as 'American Brands'. They own a wide variety of different companies in many different branches,
including tobacco, office supplies, golf products and spirits. Some of their spirit brands include Jim Beam,
Knob Creek, Maker's Mark, Old Grand-Dad, Old Crow, Canadian Club, Teacher's, Sauza Tequila, Courvoisier,
Salignac, DeKuyper, Starbucks Coffee Liqueur, Starbucks Cream Liqueur, Cockburn's port, Harveys sherry,
Laphroaig and Ardmore. Beam Global Spirits & Wine is one of the world's biggest players in the spirits
market, but they play a relatively minor role in the Scotch whisky world with only two malt distilleries.
Still, measured by production capacity Beam Global is in the top 10 of Scotch whisky producers.
 

Berry Brothers & Rudd

The Berry Brothers company has a long and proud history in the wine world, but they've also been
dabbling in whisky for many years. Their little old store in the heart of London is a sight for sore eyes;
very little seems to have changed in the more than three centuries since the company was founded
in 1698. Since 1760, the company are official suppliers to the British royal household. Apart from their
blended whisky 'Cutty Sark' the Berry Brothers company carries a range of (usually fairly excellent)
independent bottlings, as well as two series of 'vatted malts'; Berry's All Malt and Berry's Pure Malt.
The Berry Brothers & Rudd company also has long lasting ties the Glenrothes distillery in Speyside.
You can find more information about the company on www.bbr.com.
 

Blackadder

I love the British television series by the same name, but there's a virtual smudge on Blackadder's label
though: their 'Raw Cask' series. The unique trait of these bottlings is that they all have a lot of debris
in them; supposedly the debris that comes from the cask and that's usually removed by chill filtration.
Sounds charming, until you realise that it takes a LOT of effort to get some debris in each bottle...
Apart from that, I like this whisky brand a lot - and the same goes for their 'sister brand' Clydesdale.
You can find more information on www.blackadder.com.
 

Burn Stewart

The company Burn Stewart used to be based in London, but after acquiring a few malt whisky
distilleries they relocated to the Glasgow area. They now own the Bunnahabhain, Deanston and
Tobermory / Ledaig distilleries, as well as brands like Black Bottle and Scottish Leader. The Burn
Stewart company is owned by CL World Brands Limited, a daughter company of CL Financial from
Trinidad. Other brands of the company include Angustora (rum and bitters) and Hine (cognac).
 

Cadenhead's

Cadenhead's is arguably Scotland's oldest independent bottler - it was founded almost two centuries
ago (in 1842) in Aberdeen. One viable question is if the company that was founded by Wm. Cadenhead
and G. Duncan was actually a 'bottler' in the modern sense of the word - blending hadn't been invented
yet and there was no single malt culture like we have today. In fact, most distilleries that exist today
were not even founded yet... In 1972, the company was taken over by the owners of the Springbank
distillery who moved their main offices and bottling facilities to Campbeltown, close to the warehouses.
Apart from the 'home' store in Campbeltown, they have shops in London, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and
Koln. The Cadenhead's store in Amsterdam was unfortunately closed in 2008.
 

Celtic Whisky Company / Celtique Connection

Celtic Whisky Company is a French independent bottler that was founded in 1997. As a French
company they have access to a wide variety of wine casks, so it's no surprise that they were
one of the pioneers of finishing among the independent bottlers. In fact, rumour has it that they
were the first to ever use an ex-Sauternes cask for the finishing of whisky. In 2004 they've also
built their own distillery in Brittany; Glann ar Mor. Many of their whiskies have been matured in
Scotland for at least three years before being shipped off to France for additional maturation.
More information about the Celtic WHisky COmpany can be found on www.celtic-whisky.com.
 

Diageo

It's an odd one out in this overview of (mostly) independent bottlers, but because these pages are visited by relative
novices as well, I thought I should mention the name of Scotland's largest whisky producer. Diageo was born in 1997
out of a merger between Guinness PLC and Grand Metropolitan PLC... Diageo owns almost 30 malt whisky distilleries,
as well as two grain whisky distilleries. Some of their more famous single malt distilleries are Lagavulin, Cragganmore,
Dalwhinnie, Talisker, Caol Ila, Cardow, Dufftowen, Glendullan, Glen Ord, Glenkinchie, Knoackando, Oban and Mortlach.
Some of their well known 'blend' brands are Johnnie Walker, J&B, Bell's, Black & White, Vat 69, Haig and White Horse.
In 2009, Diageo received a lot of criticism for firing hundreds of employees in Scotland despite record profits of 2,5 bln.
 

Douglas Laing

The Douglas Laing bottling company was founded in 1949 by Fred Douglas Laing. They started out as blenders but
began bottling single malt whiskies in 1999. They have released thousands of different single malts in series like 'Old
Malt Cask', 'Platinum', 'Advanced Samples', 'Premier Barrel', 'McGibbon's Provenance' and 'Clan Denny'. They managed
to quickly build a strong reputation with excellent and affordable whiskies in their 'OMC' range (particularly with some
stellar expressions from the Ardbeg and Brora distilleries) but they've seem to have sold most of their good stuff now.
 

Dun Bheagan

Dun Bheagan is a range of independent bottlings from the Ian MacLeod company. They started out
as vatted malts from various regions (Islay, Highlands, etc.), but in recent years (since 1997) more
and more proper single malts were released with the 'Dun Bheagan' label. Chill filtration seems to
be avoided with all their bottlings. The labels of recent single malt bottlings also carry the number
of the cask(s) and the number of bottles they managed to extract from the cask(s).
 

Duncan Taylor

The basis of the current Duncan Taylor company was the collection of Mr. Abe Rosenberg and two of his brothers.
In a partnership with Charlie Guttman he managed to make the J&B brand a huge success in the USA. He owned
several companies, including (from the early 1960's) Duncan Taylor & Co. Ltd., especially set up to obtain casks of
Scotch (malt and grain) whisky. When Abe passed away in 1994 the company had collected almost 4,000 casks.
The company was run by a trust for a number of years until Euan Shand and Alan Gordon bought Duncan Taylor
in 2002. The business was relocated from New York to Huntly in Scotland and the brand quickly established itself
on the malt whisky scene. A few of Duncan Taylor's series are 'Whisky Galore', 'Peerless' and 'Rarest of the Rare'.
 

Edrington Group

The Edrington Group was founded well over a century ago (in 1865) in Glasgow by William A. Robertson.
His offspring (the sisters Agnes, Elspeth and Ethel) established the charitable Robertson Trust in 1961.
The sisters inherited a controlling interest in the Robertson & Baxter and Clyde Bonding Company and
changed the name to Edrington - also the name of their family estate in the Borders region of Scotland.
In 1999 the Edrington Group Limited bought Highland Distilleries for £600,000,000, giving them control
over the Macallan, Highland Park and Glenrothes malt whisky distilleries, as well as The Famous Grouse
and Cutty Sark blended whiskies. Due to the sometimes odd ownership relations in the Scotch whisky
industry, the independent bottler Berry Brothers also has some involvement with the Cutty Sark brand.
I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure about the details - I'll add those if and when I find out...
 

Gordon & MacPhail

Gordon & MacPhail was founded in 1895 by James Gordon and John Mac Phail. The bottler (located in
Elgin, Speyside) is in a league of its own when it comes to independent bottlings. For one thing, they
are the only bottler that has released many 'semi-official' bottlings in the past as well. During the
1990's G&M bottled the whisky from (among others) Ardmore, Imperial, Inverleven and Glentauchers
when the owners didn't bother with releasing an official bottling of their own. Gordon & MacPhail's
warehouse is massive and they have stocks of virtually every single malt whisky that was produced in
recent decades. The grocery store in Elgin that started it all still exists and still sells groceries, apart
from the many Gordon & MacPhail (and other) whiskies. G&M has bottled many different brands and
series in ther past, including 'Connoisseurs Choice', 'Speymalt', 'Spirit of Scotland', 'G&M Reserve'
and 'MacPhail's Collection'. They produced many 'bastard malts' like Glen Avon and Glen Gordon as
well and acquired their own Benromach distillery in 2002. More info: www.gordonandmacphail.com.
 

Hart Brothers

Donald and Iain Hart founded the company 'Hart Brothers' in 1964 and they were joined in 1975 by their brother
Alistair. They started out as wine and spirit wholesalers and Scotch whisky blenders but gradually evolved into an
independent bottler. If I'm not mistaken, they entered the market as independent bottlers in the second half of
the 1990's. Their main brand is the 'Hart Brothers Finest Collection' but they carry several other brands as well,
like the 'Collection Dunvegan' for the Societe Dugas in Paris, France. According to their website, "Hart Brothers
can trace their origins in the licensed trade back to the late 19th century when the family were licensed victualers and
publicans in Paisley, the mill town on the outskirts of Glasgow. However, it was not until 1964 that brothers Iain and
Donald Hart incorporated the company".
 

Highlands & Islands Scotch Whisky Co. Ltd.

The name of this company is so long that I had to use the abbreviation H&ISWCL on the button
on this page. Their brands include 'The Ileach' (a young peat monster, probably Lagavulin), the
'Black Cullin' (an island malt with an 8yo age statement, probably Talisker because it's named
after the Cullin Hills on Skye) and 'The Pibroch' (a twelve years old single malt, also from Islay).
 

Ian MacLeod

The company Ian MacLeod was founded in 1936 by Leonard J. Russel. Their output exceeds ten million bottles
of whiskies each year, which makes them one of the bigger players in the field. Their brands include Chieftain's
(in the past it was marketed under the full name 'Chieftain's Choice), the Shieldaig Collection, Hedges & Butler,
MacLeod's, Dun Bheagan, As We Get It, Dunfife, Glenshire, King Robert II, Smokehead, Isle of Skye and Langs.
Apart from a sizeable collection of casks (Ian MacLeod supposedly owns more than 20,000 casks of maturing
whisky from many different distilleries) Ian MacLeod obtained their own distillery a few years ago; Glengoyne.
Since they acquired Glengoyne in 2003, the quality of the distillery's output has improved significantly. However,
it remains to be seen whether or not they released most of their best whiskies in the first few years to establish
their brand, just like Douglas Laing and Bruichladdich have done when they initially emerged on the malt market.
Ian MacLeod also owns a large bottling plant at Broxburn where they bottle other spirits like gin, vodka and rum.
 

James MacArthur

This independent bottler (founded in 1982) nearly didn't make it to this list; many bottlings in their range were
sub-standard (at least in my humble opinion) and the shortage of useful information on most of James McArthur's
labels is very frustrating for malt maniacs that want to know as much as possible about what they're drinking.
For example, crucial details like the years of distillation and bottling are usually missing. Also, the labels don't
specify if colouring or chill filtration was used. Thanks to these idiosyncrasies the brand is not as interesting as
some others from the perspective of malt whisky aficionado's. The main series in James MacArthur's portfolio is
the 'Old Masters' range (sometimes spelled as 'Old Master's' with an apostrophe). In recent years they started
adding a vintage and a bottling year to the labels of most of these releases. 
 

Jean Boyer

This small French bottling company was founded in 1993 with the idea to bottle pastis, absinth and anisette.
However, its founder had already started importing single malt whiskies to France in the 1970's and it wasn't
long before the new company picked up this old business again as an independent bottler. Series in their
portfolio are 'Best Casks of Scotland', 'Gifted Stills' and 'One Shot'. The company also has its own blended
whisky, called 'Dhun Mhor'. It wasn't until 2010 that Jean Boyer launched a presence on the world wide web.
 

Lombard

Lombard is quite possibly the only independent bottler with its main offices on the Isle of Man. The company is a
family business with almost 300 years of experience in the wine and whisky trade - although the company Lombard
Scotch Whisky Ltd. was not actually established until the 1960's. The company became involved with whisky via the
brewery business. Initially they dealt exclusively with maturing whiskies for blending companies, but in the 1990's
malt whisky became so popular that they started building their own stocks of mature single malt whisky. Their main
range of single malts is named 'The Jewels of Scotland' - but they also have a single malt in their portfolio by the
name of 'Pebble Beach'. This malt whisky was launched at Pebble Beach, California, USA on Monday 13th November
in 2006. The ABV of bottlings ranges from 46% to cask strength and they are not chill filtered or artificially coloured.
Apart from single malts their portfolio contains single grains, vatted malts (Anchor Bay, Driftwood, Golden Harvest,
Smoking Ember and Tidal Ebb) and blends (Gold Label and Old Masters).
 

Master of Malt

I've come across a bunch of independent bottlings (actually miniatures) from 'Master of Malt' during the
1990's, but judging from their website they reinvented themselves as an on-line whisky shop in recent
years. They still carry their own series of independent bottlings mind you... Watch their site for more...
 

Mackillop's Choice

This independent bottler was founded in 1996 by Angus Dundee. It's named after Lorne Mackillop - "heir to
the chief of the Mackillop Clan, which was all but wiped out by the English in the aftermath of the battle of Culloden
in 1745 during the Jabobite Rebellion". Lorne selects the casks that are bottled in the Mackillop's Choice range.
The bottlings (ABV of 43%, 46% or cask strength) are not artificially coloured or chill-filtered. The range is not
easy to find here in Holland, so I haven't tried that many different expressions. Impressions so far are mixed.
In a supermarket in France I once found a 'sister brand' with the fanciful name Mackullick's Choice.
 

Milroy's (of Soho)

I haven't had the privilege of visiting their store in London yet, but as far as I can tell Milroy's is both
an independent bottler and a whisky store - like Berry Brothers and Royal Mile Whiskies, for example.
They've used different logo's on their bottlings over the past decade, which could give the impression
that there are several brands with the name 'Milroy's'. If I'm not mistaken, there's only one...
 

Moët Hennessy

There's actually not a lot of whisky-related information about Moët Hennessy, which is part of the French
luxury products conglomerate LVMH. They own part of the Ardbeg and Glenmorangie distilleries - while
Diageo owns the other parts. It's hardly surprising that prices have skyrocketed since LVMH took over...
 

Moon Import

Moon Import is one of those legendary independent bottlers from Italy that established a strong reputation
before the rest of the world discovered single malts. I couldn't find a proper logo of the company, but the labels
of some of their series are little works of art . Moon Import seems mostly dormant nowadays, but ranges from
the past include 'In The Pink' (bottled in 2000), 'Horae Solaris' (bottled in 1998), 'Seven Seas' (bottled in 1997),
'De Viris illustribus' (bottled in 1995), 'Cars' and 'Ships'. Older series are 'Costumes' and 'Animals' (both 1988).
I haven't tried a lot of these whiskies myself, but so far it seems they are more collectible than drinkable...
 

Murray McDavid

Murray McDavid was founded in the early 1990's and was named after the grandparents of co-founder
Mark Reynier; Harriet Murray and Jack McDavid. The other founders were Simon Coughlin and Gordon
Wright. Gordon was the only one with experience in the whisky world; Mark and Simon came from the
wine world where they were both involved with 'La Reserve'. The bottler has series like 'Celtic Heartland'
and 'Mission'. Murray McDavid was a major investor in Bruichladdich distillery on Islay around 2000.
 

Number One Drinks Company

The Number One Drinks Company was founded in 2006 to help bring Japanese whiskies to Europe.
Whiskies are sourced in Japan by David Croll before being judged by a tasting panel. Casks are then
purchased, bottled and shipped to Marcin Miller (founder of Whisky Magazine & the Whisky Live events)
in the UK to be sold to specialist retailers. Their very first bottling was a single malt whisky from the now
defunct Hanyu Distillery. According to their web site at www.one-drinks.com they mostly deal in single
malt whiskies from the Chichibu, Karuizawa and Hanyu distilleries.
 

Pacific Spirits / Inver House

The name of the Pacific Spirits company is not as widely known as that of their subsidiary Inver House Distillers.
Inver House Distillers Ltd. was founded in 1964 by the American company Publicker Industries. In the same year
they constructed a number of new distilleries within a single complex in Airdrie, Scotland. Apart from the Garnheath
grain whisky distillery the complex housed the Glen Flagler / Killyloch malt whisky distilleries. The enterprise wasn't
very successful; the stills that made the Killyloch malt whisky ceased production in the early 1970's, Glen Flagler
and Garnheath followed about a decade later. When I write this update (the Autumn of 2009) the Pacific Spirits
company owned five distilleries in Scotland; Balblair, Balmenach, Knockdhu, Pulteney and Speyburn.
 

Pernod Ricard

Diageo may be the undisputed number one in the Scotch whisky category, but Pernod Ricard has a very
solid position on the number two spot with (in 2008) a dozen malt whisky distilleries and a total production
capacity of some 50,000,000 litres of alcohol per year. Through their subsidiary Chivas Brothers they own
the Aberlour, Allt-A-Bhainne, Braeval, Caperdonich, Glenallachie, Glenlivet, Longmorn, Scapa and Strathisla
distilleries. Via Allied Domecq (and possibly other subsidiaries) Pernod also owns Glenburgie, Glencraig,
Glen Keith, Glentauchers, Imperial, Inverleven, Lochside, Miltonduff and Tormore.
 

Praban Na Linne

This company was founded in 1976 by Sir Iain Noble as an employment project on the Isle of Skye.
It's an odd one out in this overview because bottling single malts is a fairly insignificant part of the
activities of this company. Their main whisky is 'Te Bheag' - an unchillfiltered 'upmarket' blend with
a fairly large percentage of malt whiskies in the mix. A few years later they released 'Mac Na Mara'
with a lower malt whisky percentage. Last but not least there's the 'Poit Dhubh' wich is available
as eight, twelve and twenty-one years old whisky. The information on the labels deserves an award
for coyness - the whisky in the bottle could be either a single (bastard) malt or a vatted malt...

Samaroli

Based on the view from the shelves of local liquor stores here in Amsterdam, this is the only name in the
list of legendary Italian bottlers that's still active. The company was founded in 1968 and has built a very
solid reputation for selecting the very best casks. Founder Silvano Samaroli has reached a respectable
age by now, but he is still actively involved with the business when I write this.
 

Scott's Selection

Like many things concerning the Speyside distillery, details on the related companies are a tad murky.
The company Alexander Muir & Son was founded in the late 19th century, but it wasn't until the year
2000 that they became involved with the distillery as one of the investors. The single malts in this range
were chosen by master distiller Robert Scott. Since 2006 the company offers a second range of single
malt whiskies under the name 'Private Cellar'. Apart from the single malts from other distilleries the
single malt fromthe Speyside distillery has also been available as 'Drumguish' and 'Glentromie'.
 

Signatory Vintage

Signatory Vintage is one of Scotland's premier independent bottlers . Andrew and Brian Symington started
bottling single malt whiskies in the late 1980's and built their own bottling plant in Edinburgh in the early 90's.
The main 'brand' of Scotland's second largest independent bottler is Signatory Vintage. The name of the brand
and the company was based on the original idea to have every bottle they would release signed by a celebrity.
Somehow that idea was never implemented, but the name stuck. Apart from various series within this brand
(Un-chillfiltered Collection, Silent Stills, etc.)  the company markets several other brands like 'Scottish Wildlife'
(in the 1990's), 'Dun Eideann' (bottled at 40%, mostly for European markets) and 'Prestonfield' (named after
the hotel where the Symington brothers worked in the 1980's) - as well as the Edradour distillery since 2002.
 

Silver Seal

Silver Seal is considered to be the 'successor' of the legendary Italian bottler Sestante that ceased to
operate around 1990. The people behind the brand took it easy during the 1990's, but from 1999 on they
started releasing independent bottlings again - this time under the name 'Silver Seal' with the initials 'SS'
in a shield over a thistle in their logo. Immediately after the restart they simply bought bottles of whisky
from Douglas Laing and refilled the contents in their own bottles. These days they buy whole casks...
 

Single & Single

Single & Single is probably the 'youngest' independent bottler on this list; they didn't release
their first bottling (a sixteen year old Glencadam from 1991) until 2008. Driving force behind the
new brand is Yossi Schwarz, who describes himself as an 'armchair bottler'. The Single & Single
releases are available in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Japan & South Africa.
 

SMWS (Scotch Malt Whisky Society)

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is an odd combination of independent bottler, whisky club, magazine publisher
and franchise organisation. A lot of their bottles are quite good - possibly because fellow malt maniac Charles
MacLean helps with selecting the casks. Their bottlings are quite expensive though - and you have to be able
to enjoy the 'Reader's Digest' approach of the society. After all, somebody else pre-digests the wide spectrum
of available malt whiskies and chooses a limited selection to be presented to their customers. The Scotch Malt
Whisky Society has franchises in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg,
South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK and the USA. Within the UK, the society organises tasting
sessions regularly and I imagine several international franchises to the same - just Google the name of the
society and you should be able to find a local web site with more information about the club.
 

Specialty Drinks / The Whisky Exchange

In 1999 brothers Sukhinder und Rajbir Singh started their company Speciality Drinks Ltd. and their online shop
www.thewhiskyexchange.com. Since 2005 they've offered their own range of independent bottlings under the
name 'The Single Malts of Scotland' and in 2009 they introduced their own 'bastard' Islay malt: Port Askaig.
The parents of Sukhinder and Rajbir started a wine & spirits shop in 1973 and Sukhinder started to collect whisky
miniatures in the early 1980's. In 2004 he sold his collection of +/- 4500 mini's and focused on bigger bottles...
 

The Ultimate

Han van Wees is the 'eminence grise' of whisky importing in Holland. He founded 'The Ultimate' brand
in 1994 to help bring affordable single malts to Dutch whisky lovers. Oddly enough, the bottlings in the
range are not usually of 'ultimate' quality - but they often offer very good value. Han's son Maurice has
joined the company some time ago to take over the trade from his father. The casks for the series are
acquired from Signatory Vintage. Their labels offer an overload of information for the real 'anorak'; cask
number, distillation date, bottling date and even the total number of bottles and unique bottle number.
 

The Whisky Agency / The Whisky Fair

The whisky Fair isn't just an annual malt whisky event in Germany, it's also the name of a
brand of independent bottlings from the organisers. The quality of these bottlings is usually
EXCELLENT. Carsten Ehrlich is also involved with The Whisky Agency (focused on bottling)
and Mara Whisky Rarities - a retailer with a different portfolio from your average liquorist.
 

Vintage Malt Whisky Company

This company was founded in 1992 by Brian Crook, an ex-employee from Bowmore distillery on Islay.
Apart from the 'Coopers Choice' range of independent bottlings, the company has several other brands in its portfolio,
including the Finlaggan 'bastard' Islay malt whisky and and the 'Tambowie' vatted malt whisky. During the 1990's they
also carried a range of bastard malts from the main whisky regions under the Vintage label; their Islay expression was
a circa seven years old Lagavulin that offered incredible value for money. Brands and packaging from the Vintage Malt
Whisky Company and the Coopers Choice range are being changed regularly, so this information may be outdated...
This may not be one of the 'big brands' on this page, but when it comes to value Vintage MWC is hard to beat.
 

Whisky Doris

Whisky Doris in Germany started out as a regular whisky store, but in recent years they have evolved
into an independent bottler. Their volumes won't impress the major bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail,
Signatory and Duncan Taylor, but the quality of the casks of whisky they've selected has been excellent
so far. Let's hope they will be able to maintain that level of quality in the years to come...
 

Whyte & Mackay

Whyte and Mackay Ltd. was founded in 1844 in Glasgow by James Whyte and Charles Mackay.
They entered the whisky world in 1882 with their "W&M Special" blended whisky and it didn't
take the brand long to become a success in the UK and former colonies like Australia, Canada,
New Zealand and the United States. When they were taken over by the United Breweries Group
from Indian politician and businessman Vijay Mallya in 2007, Whyte & Mackay owned four malt
whisky distilleries; Dalmore, Fettercairn, Isle of Jura and Tamnavulin. The Indian conglomerate
also owns several brands in other spirit sectors, including Glayva liqueur and Vladivar vodka.
With the possible exception of Dalmore, their malt whisky distilleries in Scotland don't belong to
the 'nobility' in the sector like Ardbeg, Macallan or Springbank. Apparently, they're trying to
compensate for that by pumping huge amounts of money into formula one 'sports' sponsoring.
 

William Grant & Sons

In terms of production capacity, William Grant & Sons ranks at number three in the Scotch whisky world,
right after Diageo and Pernod Ricard. The company is famous for their Glenfiddich and Balvenie brands,
but their new Kininvie and Ailsa Bay distilleries produce a significant portion of their annual output.
 

Wilson & Morgan

When Italian independent bottler Fabio Rossi started in the early 1990's, the casks that were used for their
range of single malt whiskies were acquired from Cadenhead's. It wasn't long before Fabio started to hunt for
casks at the distilleries themselves though... The name 'Wilson & Morgan' is purely fictional; Fabio just needed
a name that sounded British. Most releases from Wilson & Morgan are single cask bottlings, although they do
release bottlings from multiple casks as well, like their 'House Malt Born on Islay'. It seems Wilson & Morgan
releases a fresh batch every year - and until now these house malts have always provided excellent value.
Many whiskies from Wilson & Morgan are released in the 'Barrel Selection' range, but they have cask strength
bottlings as well. The bottler also introduced the 'Rum Nation' range of rums in the early 2000's.
 

Individual tastes vary from person to person, so although I do have my own preferences I'll keep them to myself.
The Malt Maniacs Awards is another story though... Many of the bottlers mentioned in the list below have participated in our
annual whisky competition and because the results are determined by twelve or more jurors they rule out any individual bias.
This page was never intended as a complete overview of all (independent) bottlers either, so the list shows just a selection.
The list below only contains the largest independent bottlers; a handful of them were not included - some of them with good
reason and others without ;-)  Not included in the detailed list below are The Alchemist (Gordon Wright seems to be more of a
'hobby' bottler), Compass Box (John Glaser's company produces blends, vatted malts and grains, but not single malts as such),
Exclusive Malts (I haven't seen any bottles from David Stirk's range in stores yet), Helen Arthur (all bottlings I've tried so far
were avoidable), Jack Wieber (bottles in the JWWW and Old Train Line ranges often have a great nose but an awful palate),
Kingsbury (bottlings are destined exclusively for Japan), The Nectar (the bottlings are only available in Belgium and Holland),
Royal Mile Whiskies (more of a whisky store, really), the Scotch Single Malt Circle (this store is mostly active in Germany),
The Bottlers (I've hardly tried any bottlings from this generically named bottler) and Whizita (another bottler from Germany).

Malt Whisky Bottler Codes on the Malt Maniacs Monitor;

As I've pointed out, this list of independent whisky bottlers is not complete. Strictly speaking, everybody that buys a cask of whisky and then later bottles the contents of the cask is an independent bottler. So, there are many thousands of 'independent bottlers'. However, only a few dozen of them bottle malt whisky in sufficient numbers to be identified on the Malt maniacs Monitor. The whisky industry has its fair share of shady business, so the relationships between different companies are not always very clear. Serge Valentin of Whiskyfun and a few other malt maniacs were very helpful in clearing up a few details about these independent bottlers.

WARNING: THE LIST IS NOT FINISHED YET!!!

AC - Alambic Classique; a small independent bottler from Germany, owned by Mr. R. Suppanz.
ACORN - Acorn is the name of a series of bottles destined for the Japanese market.
ADEL - Adelphi;
BBR - Berry Brothers & Rudd; a
BLCK - Blackadder / Clydesdale
CAD - Cadenhead's
CALS - Caledonian Selection; a range of bottlings - possibly from or for the USA, possibly discontinued.
CELT (sometimes CELC or CELW) - Celtic Whisky Company, formerly known as Celtique Connection.
CHFT - The Chieftain's range by Ian MacLeod was introduced under the name 'Chieftain's Choice'.
COOP - Coopers Choice;
COUV - Michel Couvreur; a bottler from Belgium (the company is French) that almost exclusively bottles luxury 'bastard' whiskies.
DL - Douglas Laing;
DR - Dewar Rattray;
DT - Duncan Taylor;
DUNB - Dun Bheagan;
DUNE - Dunn Eideann;
EXCL - Exclusive Malts; a fairly new brand from David Stirk. David has worked at Cadenhead's and wrote a few books about whisky.
F&F - the Flora & Fauna range from Diageo
G&M - Gordon & MacPhail;
HACS - Helen Arthur;
HB - Hart Brothers;
HDGB - Hedges & Butler; a series from Ian MacLeod
IB - The abbreviation 'IB' covers various independent bottlers
JB - Jean Boyer;
JMCA - J. MacArthur;
JWWW - Jack Wieber;
KING - Kingsbury;
KRSC - Kirsch Import, a German bottler
LMDW - La Maison du Whisky; large French whisky store / importer
LOMB - Lombard's;
M&H - Mario & Hubert; a short-lived cooperation between Mario Groteklaes and Hubert Corman (who now runs 'Taste Still' alone).
MCLD - Ian MacLeod; linked to the Chieftain's brand (?)
MKLP - Mackillop's Choice; this independent bottler was founded in 1996 by Angus Dundee
MMCD - Murray McDavid;
MOM - Master of Malt;
MOON - Moon Import; a legendary independent bottler from Italy
MOS - Malts of Scotland; a range by a new German bottler, not to be confused with (TMOS) -
MROY - Milroy's;
NC - Natural Color; a small French bottler. Apparently no international distribution yet, so most were tasted by French maniacs.
NECT - The Nectar, an independent bottler from Belgium
OB - Official Bottling;
PREST - Prestonfield; another range from Signatory Vintage's Andrew Symington, bottled exclusively for La Maison du Whisky.
RMW - Royal Mile Whiskies; British whisky store
SAM - Samaroli;
SCSL - Scott's Selection;
SEST - Sestante;
SIGV - Signatory Vintage;
SLVS - Silver Seal;
SMWS - Scotch Malt Whisky Society;
SSMC - Scotch Sing. M. Circle;
SWLD - Scottish Wildlife; a series from the people behind Signatory Vintage, bottled for the Bottled for Scottish Wildlife Fund.
THEB - The Bottlers;
TMOS - The Single Malts of Scotland; a range from The Whisky Exchange
TWE - The Whisky Exchange;
TWF - The Whisky Fair;
TWS - The Whisky Shop;
UDRM - Rare Malts;
ULTM - The Ultimate;
WD - Whisky Doris; German whisky store and occasional bottler
W&M - Wilson & Morgan;
W&W - Whyte & Whyte; an American bottler

The Springbank distillery also produces the
more heavily peated 'Longrow' malts, as well
as a new spirit under the name 'Hazelburn'.
Once again, these are second-hand names
of silent distilleries in the Campbeltown area.