In my single malt search in my other thread, a question has come up for someone with more knowledge than me about single malts.
I understand that single malts sometimes are not bottled by the distillery but rather by private bottlers. They are generally less expensive than the distillery bottling. For example, I see a fair number of “Signatory” bottles available. I also see Hart Brothers. I gather these bottles are from single casks and may vary from the distillery bottling. I also gather that some private bottlers may be better than others.
Generally speaking, should I stay away from these unless I know the private bottler is a good one? If so, is Signatory or Hart Brothers a bottler whose single malt I should feel comfortable purchasing?
Both the bottlers you have mentioned are fine and very reputable. There is not reason to shy away from private bottlings. There are the same single malt you would have gotten from the orginal distiller. the 2 major differances are the amount of time the barrel is held untill bottled and the storage. The first is a matter of personal preferance. If you like older or younger Scotch than you just need to look for the age of the spirit when bottled it will always appear on the label. The second is the tricky one. There is something to be said for storage. Not that the spirit can go bad but rather there are magic or special spots in distilleries warehouses that make the distillate taste like nothing you have ever had. That when the distillery make up a batch they can recreate that certain flavor by using certain barrels for all over the warehouse. when a barrel is sold to a private bottler the barrel CAN be held at the distillery but is not normally they are moved to other warehouses and often traded among other bottlers someone needs xxx and will trade for yyy and so forth. This does not have any “adverse” effect on the spirit. The point is once out of the orginal warehouse the flavor will be different sometime almost inperseptively and someting HUGE. you will need to experiment to find the bottlers that create the flavors you have become accustome to and like. If nothing else if it is a really enjoyable trial and error game to play. Good luck
Larry seems more knowledgeable than me on the topic, I can only speak to my experience with two bottles fine bottles I bought from Binny’s. Both were excellent Scotch and both were outstanding values compared to what I would have paid for similar products from the big names. Binnys has a huge selection of private bottled spirits. Given the number of bottles in each series, I would guess that they purchase an entire barrel and sell it through their network of stores. If I was at home I could share more info on each of the bottles I bought, but quickly: one was a D’Yquem finish, and the other a 30 year old.
Peter thanks. The reason the bottles can be cheaper is that there is little over head for the bottler they have a warehouse and evaporation. Also no marketing other than sales people and sample bottles. more can happen at the bottler’s as well, as mentioned above the bottler can choose to finish the spirit in a different butt such as a wine/sherry/Desert Wine…ect barrel this process adds a light flavor and is usually for never more then the last 6 or 8 months of aging. All these other processes are again not going to hurt the spirit but add or cover flavors and becoma a matter of personal preferance.
Another crucial difference is that many independent bottlers do NOT do any of the following:
Blend multiple casks (and they choses the casks they bought out of the whole inventory of the distiller).
Dilute them to get under American tax laws.
Filter the spirits.
There are some AMAZING bottlings out there from the independents and you must remember to do the math on the cask strength ones to see what an equivalent at 80 or 86° would cost.
Some of the independent bottlings are great. But they aren’t always cheaper, although my impression may be colored by bottlings from producers that are now closed.
My store carries 6-7 Signatory bottlings right now. I love them all. I have tasted maybe 20 or so from them and have not had a dud, perhaps I am lucky. But I think that they put out a quality product.
I’m not as familiar with other private bottlers though.
Er… where did you get that from? Either a scotch is released “cask strength” and there’s no dilution, or it is diluted with spring water (usually the same that’s been used for the distillation process, at least if this specific scotch has been bottled at the distillery) to bring it between 40-46% alcohol, I believe according to Scotland’s laws.
Larry gave you a very comprehensive answer. I think the main difference is that when you buy a distillery-bottled scotch you are going for something you already know, whereas with private bottlers you will get a surprise. The other difference is the finishing touches, be it aging, diluting, etc.
Re: the first difference, a distillery is (mostly) a brand, they will want to produce their regular bottlings year in and year out and try to smooth out the differences from “vintage to vintage”. Think about it the same way as in Champagne - either you’re buying a house blend that you like, or you’re buying a vintage wine, particularly from a small producer. This comes with the usual downside of bad vintages, bad casks and so on. You have to live with what you get when you buy a private bottled scotch.
The second difference is not as insignificant as one might think - the place where the whisky ages can add a lot to it, especially for distilleries with a very specific climate and location (most obvious for the island ones). Same with the water used to dilute it (although it’s becoming more and more the norm to release small batches as cask strength, which obviously negates that aspect). Then as others have pointed out you have the big producers’ tendencies to filter, add caramel for color and whatnot, that the private bottlers are unlikely to do.
After that it comes down to a certain philosophy of whisky making. Due to the nature of the product I don’t believe that the essence of whisky is in tiny, single cask, single vintage releases–although the outcome of this approach can be spectacularly good. I do however value single malts (from one distillery) over blends (although again I’ve had great blends, e.g. from Couvreur). I also happen to think that cask strength whiskys are almost always better than diluted ones. And Japanese single-malts are world class. YMMV.