Independent Bottlers

Independent Bottlers or IB's or Indies are individuals or companies that buy casks from distilleries or from middle men called brokers and create their own bottles. Some such as Gordon and Macphail (founded 1895), Cadenhead (founded 1842) and Berry Bros and Rudd (founded 1698). There have been famous Scottish independent bottlers such as Johnnie Walker and the Chivas Brothers that acquired distilleries and built whisky empires. Some of the greatest whiskies produced in the twentieth century have been bottled by Italian independent bottlers such as Samaroli, Intertrade, Moon Imports and Sestante. You don't have to be a century old to be a great independent bottler - SMWS, Signatory Vintage, Adelphi, North Star, Elixir, Hidden Spirits... many are relatively new or just a few decades old. Today there are hundreds of different independent bottlers and now several bottle Australian whisky such as Heartwood, Spirit Thief, Dark Valley or more recently the UK's That Boutique-y-Whisky Company. Often the most interesting malts are released by Indies.