Quality of independantly bottled Scotch Whiskies?
I am looking at some of the whiskies available through companies such as Old Malt Cask, or Hart Brothers, who buy casks from distilleries and then do their own bottllings, and sold under the name of the distillery. Does anyone have much experience with buying these bottlings, and how did you find them?
PeatPete
Nov 04, 2009 02:20AM
Independent bottlings are not at all uncommon and can be very, very good. Gordon & McPhail, a leading whisky merchant in Elgin, Scotland, offers a wide range of bottlings from a number of distillers. McMurray & David is another major independent. 'Compass Box' and 'Jon, Mark & Rabbo' are two whisky "negociants" who offer a line of whiskies they acquire from distilleries and then blend to their own styles.
The only way to know what you might like is to try a few. The truth is in the tasting!
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As DavidT indicates, indie Bottlings are a staple of the Scotch whisky industry. Buying them, though, can be tricky. Because many, if not most independently bottled single malts are single cask, there can be a huge variation among them, so buying them can be a real crapshoot. What I tend to do is look for companies I trust (Murry McDavid, Douglas Laing, Ian McLeod, Cadenhead's, etc., etc.) bottled at cask strength or at least 50% of malts that I either generally like, am curious about or have heard positive things about.
It's great fun to try them as the Indies offer whiskies, ages and abv levels that can't always be had from the distillers, but as I said, there is a bit of risk involved.
http://recenteats.blogspot.com/2007/0...
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Decided to chance my arm... have bought myself a Caol Ila bottled by Douglas Laing under the Old Malt Cask lable. Unfortunately in Australia it is an expensive crapshoot, with most malts priced somewhere in the $85 - $120 range
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