Thank you for sharing this great video and your insights! We are delighted you have chosen us as an example of transparency as that is what we stand for at A D Rattray. Honesty, integrity, quality and simplicity. We too describe what we do as curating whiskies for your enjoyment by working with distilleries from across Scotland. You will find all the information we have about every cask is included on the label where we also clearly ‘celebrate the maker’ and we add any extra info on the journey of that cask and why we selected it on our website. Rather than seek to imprint our own identity on a cask of whisky, we take a spirit-forward approach to selection and maturation. Especially when employing a finishing cask, we believe the wood should always enhance the spirit, and never conceal quirks. Our aim is not to craft or shape the character of single cask whisky, but simply to allow it to flourish and provide a window into the spirit character of a distillery. We’re excited to see the emergence of more US Independent Bottlers. There are challenges but also great whisky rewards! ( Delighted you loved that Fettercairn too! )
First rule of life by Daniel is "don't be an asshole"!!! If everyone applied this rule to all areas of life, things would be way better. Regarding independent bottlers, I had my first taste of a Barrel Cask Strength yesterday during a blind flight and it was my top pick. The other offerings were from unsourced distilleries. Thanks Daniel for another entertaining and informative video. Cheers.
This is exactly what we want. I don't mind a blended whiskey as long as I know thats what they are doing. I hate most of them say they are a distillery when they don't distill anything. Then you have contract distilled, but you don't know where it's aged. As a new enthusiast to whiskey, these are things I would like to know, to make a more INFORMED decision.
Cool history lesson I had no idea about the water cooling process Fettercairn does that's cool as.... I have bottle of Fettercain 16yr 2022 3rd Release definitely looking forward to popping this now I know a little more about it.. Cheers Whisky Wizard 🥃🧙♂️🥃
I still have an unopened bottle of Fettercairn Fior 🙂 And various other independent bottled fettercairns. In fact... I live in the Netherlands, but my inlaws live only 8 miles from the Fettercairn distillery!
My local Specs carries a ton of independent bottlings and it's almost all I buy now. I'm a huge fan of this cause I have cask selects from distilleries that typically end up in other blends or sold under different names like Dailluaine (blend) and Knockdhu (actually AnCnoc)
Love the idea of independent bottlers taking known brands and doing cool stuff like finishing, blending, or aging new make in other regions. Buuuut yeah will the established brands be on board with diluting their specific brand. I guess it’s working with parent brands already so there’s a chance. Anyway great take as always, Daniel. Love learning so much more about the industry than just the juice in the bottle
I really like the way Adelphi handled this with MaCleans Nose; there's a QR code on the label that shows you every cask in the batch and while it doesn't say the exact distillery, it at least tells you the region they're from
I love distilleries doing this with their own releases too! Like Ardnamurchan, where they have significant batch variation, you can scan a QR code and see the ages, amount of peated/unpeated malt, cask types, etc. that went into that specific batch.
Yay Independent Bottlers! 🎉 I only have 2 Fettercairns on the shelf... an SWMS 94.45 Sultans of Swig (14yr) and a Signatory Vintage distilled in 1988 (30yr). I guess they'll do. 😏
YES!! I wholeheartedly agree. In Colorado there are a number of great little craft distilleries who make great whiskey. But they don't have the bandwidth. Independent Bottlers can highlight and celebrate those distilleries for others to discover. I love where that movement is going. Thank you my friend for a great and passionate conversation 🥃.
The Nippon Fruit Juice Company did it right, they started by making apple juice and then apple wine while their whisky was still aging. When it was ready they shortened their name (in Japanese) to Nikka and became the company we know today. And at no point in starting up did they have to source other people's whisky.
It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they had to say sourced from MGP or Phillips etc. Then explain how they finished the product to make it their own. I have had some excellent “independent” brands that were creatively blended or finished MGP. I have also had a few that were just label swaps and all the same as the original.
Hey Daniel, are you aware that your camera sensor is dying? There are multiple white spots in the video and some of them have been there for a few videos now already. There's one on your left shoulder, two on the bookshelves behind you, one on your chest, one on the painting next to the man's hand, and one on the wall below the painting. You can hide these with a process called pixel mapping that covers the bad pixel with an average color of the adjacent pixels. But with how many have gone bad in such a short time, it's likely you'll get more popping up to the point of the camera becoming unusable.
Would it also matter if a distillery sources their undistilled juice from another producer then did the distillation, barreling and bottling themselves? I know Avonak, our nearby distillery has their mash brewed at Spindletap brewery, then distill through bottling in their own facility.
lol - this is funny. When I visited my family in the Houston area a few months ago, I made my normal pilgrimage to Spec’s to buy Texas whiskey and Scotch that I can’t find where I live now. That Spec’s had both the ADR Fettercairn and Teaninich, which are distilleries that I discovered via SMWS. I agonized for many, many, many minutes about which one of the two to buy. I went with the Teaninich. So, this whole video I’m thinking @#$&!, I bought the ‘wrong’ bottle! And then Daniel lets me off the hook by throwing in the Teaninich comment. 😂 (I assume it is the same one). I didn’t expect that emotional roller coaster when I clicked on this 15 minute video hahaha. ❤
Love it. Now if only there was a real soap box that is independently sourced for the stage 😂 I think transparency is key simply to know, as a consumer, what I have.
For food, the same is true for the word 'processed.' Processed food isn't inherently bad. The question is, who is doing the processing and what is their intent?
And don't get me started on the word 'chemicals.' "I don't want anything with chemicals." "Unless you're talking about dark matter, such a thing literally doesn't exist!"
I very much like the idea, but do you really think distilleries being sourced from would approve of the idea? The concept definitely works in the UK, but will it fly in America? I suppose that is the very question being asked here.
Totally agree with all you said - But you just scratched the surface of transparency. As a drinker (of malt whisky, whether from the maker or from an honest independent bottler), there are other things I want to know, things that are also part of transparency. Basically, give me as much info as possible - some are legally mandated, some are not. Give me info on age (though there can be great NAS whiskies), abv, barrel info (maturation, finishing), mash bill, is it colored, chill filtered, etc. Basically, tell me as much as possible about that bottle, feed my inner geek. If you do, I’m likely to buy more whisky from you.
