It is trendy now, amongst the deep-diggers and Reddit geeks of the whisk(e)y world, to celebrate independent bottlers. (We’re just fine with that.) These are outfits that cultivate relationships with established distilleries so they can purchase product for further blending and aging, and/or for issuing single-cask releases. By obtaining distillate pre-bottling, professional buyers and blenders have control of the pure spirit and are free to release it at cask-strength and without coloring agents and chill-filtration. This can be a great improvement over typical bottlings, many of which are made for complete commercial consistency.
In round one we look at single-malt and blended-malt Scotch and an unusual Canadian. Next round we’ll feature the USA and Japan. All whiskies featured are released without added color or chill-filtration.