For at the moment’s weblog I’m going to speak to you a couple of subject that we’re immensely obsessed with right here at Nice Drams, and one which is massively related to us. The subject in query is unbiased bottlers.
Now, with out tooting our personal horn an excessive amount of, as unbiased bottlers we’ve completed a heck of lots over time, and have picked up plenty of awards and honours to show it. One which we’re notably happy with is being named ‘Greatest Impartial Bottler’ on the World Spirits Competitors.
Whereas seasoned whisky drinkers will possible know the ins and outs of unbiased bottling, for extra informal drinkers or these simply moving into whisky, it could be a bit extra complicated. After studying the weblog at the moment, all shall be made clear.
Right here’s a have a look at unbiased bottlers and why many take into account them to be the unsung heroes of the whisky world.
Offering Extra Selection
Take a stroll down your native grocery store’s booze aisle and also you’ll discover a bunch of a well-recognized faces on the subject of whisky/whiskey. In actual fact, with out even going, you’ll be able to most likely title a number of whiskies which might be just about assured to be out there.
Now, I’m not bashing these by any means. These are all fabulous whiskies, and so they wouldn’t be a mainstay on grocery store cabinets and native off licences in the event that they weren’t well-liked. One of many principal drawbacks I have a tendency to search out, although, is an absence of selection. Once I’m shopping the booze aisles and spot a brand new model of spirit, I instantly gravitate in the direction of it. A bit such as you would do to the native kebab store after an evening in town. The explanation why I take a look at any new bottles is as a result of I’m at all times trying to strive one thing new. If it wasn’t for unbiased bottlers, discovering new and distinctive whisky can be an excellent deal tougher, to not point out an excellent deal dearer.
Impartial bottlers, akin to ourselves, supply whisky from among the nation’s hottest distilleries after which do our personal factor to show it into one thing utterly completely different, and hopefully, one thing that you just all discover much more scrumptious.
What are Impartial Bottlers?
Okay, so we’ve established that unbiased bottlers present completely different and distinctive whisky in comparison with that which is mass-produced on huge scales, however how precisely do they obtain this?
Effectively, initially, it’s necessary to grasp the distinction between distillers and unbiased bottlers. It’s the distillers themselves which might be chargeable for creating the whisky. They use state-of-the-art distilleries, together with a mix of conventional and fashionable practices to show the only of components into the liquid gold all of us adore a lot. It isn’t, nevertheless, solely the distillers which might be chargeable for every single bottle of whisky that we discover within the outlets. A substantial amount of that is the position of the common-or-garden unbiased bottler.
Giant distilleries produce hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of litres of whisky every single 12 months. A big proportion of them will promote the whisky on to blended Scotch manufacturers who will combine and match completely different whiskies from completely different distilleries to make their very own distinctive blends of whisky.
As soon as the blended Scotch manufacturers have their whisky nevertheless, there’ll inevitably be just a few casks of whisky left over. So, what occurs to them? Are they merely forgotten about and left to evaporate within the nook of a darkish and dusty warehouse? No, that will be a travesty. What as an alternative occurs is unbiased bottlers could purchase a cask or two, after which work their very own magic to show it into one thing utterly completely different.
We unbiased bottlers journey the nation, and certainly, the world, visiting varied distilleries within the hopes of discovering a whisky that meets our personal particular standards.
What do Impartial Bottlers Do?
One of the crucial widespread misconceptions surrounding unbiased bottlers, and one which actually frustrates me, is folks assuming that unbiased bottlers merely purchase whisky from a distillery, bottle it, plonk a distinct label on it, and promote it. That’s completely not what we do.
As talked about, we’ll journey the lands on the hunt for the best whisky we are able to supply. After we go to a distillery, we typically have a transparent image in our heads of what we’re in search of. If we’re trying to launch a peaty, smoky single malt from Islay, that’s precisely the place we’ll head and what we’ll search for. If we would like a sherry bomb, we’ll look to supply a whisky aged in a PX or Oloroso sherry cask, or one which already has fairly sturdy sherry notes.
That’s solely the beginning, although. As soon as we supply the whisky, then the enjoyable can start. Among the finest issues about being an unbiased bottler is having fun with artistic freedom over the whiskies. We could not distil the whisky, however we definitely flavour it. We determine how lengthy to mature the whisky, which sort of picket cask to mature it in, and maybe end it.
For instance, we may take a bourbon aged single malt, place it right into a PX sherry cask, and provides it a further 3 years. We may then supply a ruby port cask (pipe) and end the whisky in there for a further 12 months. The top outcome can be a whisky that has loved a further 4 years of getting older, in a mix of PX sherry, and ruby port casks, in addition to the ex-bourbon cask it began off in.
We may select to mix completely different whiskies collectively to create our personal distinctive blends of Scotch. Impartial bottlers present completely different, utterly distinctive expressions of whiskies. Many of those whiskies end up utterly completely different to how they started after they have been first sourced by the unbiased bottlers. As soon as we’re pleased with how the whisky smells, seems to be, and tastes, we’ll go forward and bottle it, seal it, label it, and promote it to our incredible clients.
In the end, unbiased bottlers goal to not solely make whisky extra accessible to you, however we need to present whisky drinkers with extra selection and extra choices. Now we have the liberty and the means to create completely different whiskies that large-scale distilleries merely wouldn’t be capable to do.
When you’d prefer to be taught extra about your favorite whiskies, or just deal with your self to a dram or two within the course of, head on over to GreatDrams.com and check out what we’ve got to supply.
With a powerful choice of limited-edition, uncommon, and award-winning whisky, in addition to heaps of whisky data on our weblog, it’s the right spot for any whisky lovers on the market.
