• Opposed to official distillery bottlings, independent bottlings come from specialized whisky brokers who buy whisky casks or even new make spirit directly from various distilleries and bottle it under their own brand.
  • Independent bottlers sometimes display the name of the distillery on their bottle label, but some don’t. That’s why the Scotch Malt Whisky Society came up with a mysterious two number coding, the first one giving away the distillery info.
  • Short list of independent bottlers:
July 1, 2024
Speyside Hero Vol 6 Ruby Port Review

Speyside Hero Vol. VI Blended Malt

Speyside Hero is a series of blended malt expressions by an German independent whisky bottler called The Whisky Chamber (owned by Thomas Ide). I found this expression on my trip to Berlin, from Simply Great Whisky shop. SGW had a quite large selection of Whisky Chamber’s blended malt whiskies and […]
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June 18, 2024
The Latitude 55° Blended Scotch bottle label

The Latitude 55° Blended Scotch Review

The Latitude 55° Blended Scotch was produced for Nordic market, especially Sweden and Finland. Bottled by Vin & Sprit, also known for Grönstedts cognac. This blend contains unknown Islay whiskies, apparently matured in sherry casks. Swedish blending of Islay A blended whisky from Islay region, blended by Swedish blender Folke […]
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May 19, 2023
Smoky Scot Islay Single Malt

Smoky Scot Islay Single Malt

Smoky Scot is a 5 year old single malt by Islay region’s Caol Ila distillery, bottled by Aceo Spirits. Since we’re talking about a young indie bottling, it makes you uncertain about the quality. But coming from reputable Islay distillery set my hopes higher than with other similar type of […]
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May 25, 2022
Macleod's Islay Single Malt Scotch

Macleod’s Islay Single Malt

Macleod’s Islay Single Malt Scotch is a product by independent bottler Ian Macleod Distillers. They’re probably most famous for Smokehead brand which also contains unknown Islay whiskies. I owned a bottle of Smokehead 18 year old single malt, which was fairly good. My expectations for this one weren’t high, though. […]
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July 17, 2020
Williamson 6YO whisky review

Williamson 6 year old by That Boutique-y Whisky Company

Review of Williamson 6 year old single malt by That Boutique-y Whisky Company. That Boutique-y Whisky Company is an independent bottler. Their range includes limited edition single malts, single grains and bourbons from various renowned distilleries. They also produce blended malts and blends. That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC) is owned by […]
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June 9, 2020
Braeval 20 Year Old Cask Strength by Hart Brothers

Braeval 20YO Cask Strength by Hart Brothers

This Braeval 20 year old cask strength single malt comes from the independent bottler Hart Brothers. I was fortunate enough to have a sample at Turku Beer and Whisky Festival. Needless to say, this whisky is something you’d definitely have to have full bottle in your cabinet. Distilled at Braeval […]
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November 15, 2019
Mossburn Blair Athol 10YO Review

Mossburn Blair Athol 10YO 2007 Cask Strength

This 10 year old Blair Athol single malt comes from the independent bottler Mossburn’s cask strength collection. This small batch whisky was distilled in 2007 and bottled 30th of November 2017. The bottler is called Mossburn – Distillers & Blenders (MBD). They have Vintage Casks collections from various distilleries, this […]
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March 29, 2018
Gordon and MacPhail whisky - Glenburgie 10YO

Glenburgie 10 year old by Gordon and MacPhail

WhiskyRant conclusions Tasting notes Glenburgie is also known as Glenburgie-Glenlivet, Glen Burgie or Glenburry. The distillery is located near Alves, Moray in Speyside region. Their whisky is mostly used for blends. Ballantine’s and Old Smuggler are famous blends with Glenburgie malt whisky in them. When the distillery was acquired in […]
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July 24, 2017
Benrinnes Signatory 1997

Benrinnes 1997 Signatory 18 year old review

Benrinnes 1997 18 year old single malt whisky by independent bottler Signatory comes from a single cask like Signatory’s products tend to do. This is a malt from Speyside region, from Benrinnes distillery, but the casks are picked by Signatory company who also bottle the products. So the bottling is […]
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December 28, 2016
Compass Box Flaming Heart

Compass Box Flaming Heart 15th Anniversary Whisky review

Celebrating Compass Box’s fifteenth anniversary, the 2015 edition of Flaming Heart is another fine example of top notch blending by John Glaser and his company. Glaser has been named “Innovator of the Year” four times by Whisky Magazine and “Pioneer of the Year” twice by Malt Advocate. He has stated […]
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October 22, 2016
Compass Box Hedonism

Compass Box Hedonism Blended Grain review

Compass Box Hedonism was first released in the year 2000, and it was the first of its kind – a blended grain whisky. Another innovation by the tireless innovators from Compass Box. This small independent bottler has really been a pioneering facet in whisky industry, they’ve even managed to upset […]
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October 2, 2016
Compass Box Enlightenment

Compass Box Enlightenment review

Compass Box Enlightenment was made in the spirit of Compass Box’s Campaign for Scotch Whisky Transparency. You can read the backstory of this campaign from my Spice Tree review – long story short, production of Spice Tree had to be stopped because of Scotch Whisky Association’s ridiculous regulations (Fortunately they […]
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October 1, 2016
Compass Box Spice Tree

Compass Box Spice Tree review

Compass Box Spice Tree gained much reputation because of Scotch Whisky Association and its regulations. Making Compass Box Spice Tree “illegal whisky”. I’ll get to that later on but first: some basic information about this vatting of Northern Highland malt whiskies. Clynelish malt is the core of this blended malt […]
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February 6, 2016
Jack Wiebers Whisky World logo

Classic of Islay Jack Wieber 2015 review

Friend of mine told me about a German importer from Berlin, who has released bottlings under the name of Jack Wieber since 1998. Jack Wiebers Whisky World is a wholesale business operating in Wiener Strasse, Berlin. Owned by Lars-Göran Wiebers, the whisky shop is specialized in independent and rare bottlings. And they do release […]
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September 15, 2015
The Ultimate logo

The Ultimate Glenrothes 1995 17YO review

The Ultimate Whisky Company is an independent bottler founded in 1994 by Han and Maurice van Wees. Since then they have released over 500 malt whiskies, the list of products can be found here along with distillation and bottling dates, ages, cask types and numbers. All of The Ultimate whiskies […]
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June 30, 2015
Murray McDavid independent whisky bottler logo

Longmorn 12YO 1994 by Murray McDavid review

This is a whisky from the independent bottler Murray McDavid and it is part of their “turquoise series”. I had a chance to try it on our way to Teerenpeli distillery tour in Lahti, Finland. It is Longmorn 12 year old single malt from 1994 and it has been matured in a bourbon but. Finished on […]
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June 24, 2015
Elements of Islay logo

Elements of Islay Bn4 review

Elements of Islay Bn4 is the fourth batch from Bunnahabhain distillery, bottled by the independent bottler Speciality Drinks. This dark and sweet character felt like a nice addition into the Elements of Islay series, even though I only had a chance to take few sips of it on our way to Taivaanranta […]
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April 18, 2015
Smokehead featured image

Smokehead Extra Black 18 year old review

Smokehead 18 year old single malt is a 6000 bottle limited release by Ian Macleod – a mystery dram from Islay. There’s also a non age statement whisky under the Smokehead brand, launched in 2006. It is much cheaper and presumably, better available than this 18YO Extra Black. The name, […]
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February 15, 2015
Compass Box Peat Monster review

Compass Box The Peat Monster blended malt review

Compass Box The Peat Monster is a vatted malt of Islay, Speyside and Isle of Mull, created by John Glaser from Compass Box. The Speyside malt comes from Ardmore distillery. Islay is represented by a village of Port Askaig and some south coast Islay too. Also with some peated malt from […]
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December 17, 2014
Fox Fitzgerald logo

Peat’s Beast Intensely Peated single malt review

Peat’s Beast is a heavily peated single malt whisky, with phenol level of 35 ppm (parts per million). Coming from a mystery distillery from Speyside in Scotland. Matured in bourbon casks, bottled by an independent bottler, Fox Fitzgerald. The first release (2011) was a 5000 bottle edition. Like BEAUTY AND THE […]
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September 12, 2014
Murray McDavid independent whisky bottler logo

Murray McDavid Bowmore 9 year old 2001 Port Casks review

A single malt whisky distilled at Bowmore in 2001, where it was aged in bourbon casks. Then taken to Bruichladdich distillery for Port Pipes finishing in 2010. Limited release of 1066 bottles. Bottling of Murray McDavid. STARSKY AND HUTCH whisky – complimenting ingredients Magnificent whisky just like many of the sherry […]
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June 9, 2014
Port Askaig logo

Port Askaig 12 year old review

BURN AFTER READING its label and tasting This is a single malt Scotch from a mystery Islay distillery, produced by Speciality Drinks for The Whisky Exchange. In my opinion, Port Askaig is like Coen brothers production, that isn’t critically acclaimed. Islay being like the Coen brothers, producing only good products. […]
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April 1, 2014
Big Peat Xmas Edition 2012

Big Peat Christmas Edition 2012 Cask Strength review

Great sequel – DIE HARD II whisky I already reviewed the original Big Peat. This is the same stuff but cask strength. Nice sequel for the “Die Hard whisky“, as I referenced Big Peat. Same ingredients but with more power and explosions. Just like Die Hard II, this dram follows […]
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