When you begin to appreciate Single Malt Scotch you usually start your journey with the better-known distillery bottlings as you explore the wide range of flavor profiles available to you.  And there are some

great distillery bottlings out there that don’t break the bank and are of a very high quality…bottlings like

Macallan 12, Balvenie 12, Ardbeg 10, Laphroaig 10, Glenfiddich 12, Glenmorangie Original (10), all of which can be had for under $50 and some even less expensive. 

But at some point you yearn for something more…cask-strength bottlings, single cask bottlings, un-chill filtered bottlings, bottlings untainted by artificial coloring and THAT will usually lead you into the world of Independent Bottlers. Now it is true that some of the distilleries are creating bottlings for this niche, but the demand for such bottlings was first filled by the Independent Bottlers and they still have more freedom to pick unique, one-off bottlings and get them into your hands.

So what is an Independent Bottling? Well first of all it is whisky that is not bottled by the distillery whose name appears on the bottle. As distillers produce whisky, very little of it ends up as single malts and most goes into famous world-wide blends that can soak up a lot of single malt whisky where it is mixed with grain alcohol. Famous Grouse, Johnnie Walker, Dewar’s…all of these blenders are buying thousands of casks from single malt distilleries and formulating them into blends.

Once these casks are in the hands of the Independents, they are free to age them as they see fit. They may leave them in their original casks to age or they may re-rack them into casks of their own design to produce a flavor unlike the distillery bottlings. You might think of Compass Box, in this regard.

One reason you might seek out one of these single cask bottlings is that even though casks may be filled one after another and age next to each other in a warehouse, cask #one may differ greatly from cask #two and so on. When distilleries make a “batch” of say, Bowmore 10, they dump from 150-300 casks and that will create that particular bottling. But, before they pick those casks, their master blender will have tested them to find the ones that will produce their signature flavor profile.

So on an individual cask basis, some may be very heavily flavored and some only lightly flavored. This is where an Independent Bottler can find really outstanding casks and let them shine on their own merit, without worrying whether if fits the typical flavor profile of their distillery.

One of the greatest favors that independent bottlers do for lovers of single malts is to bottle singles from distilleries that don’t ever release their own spirit themselves, because almost all of their production goes

into blends; not enough to bother with bottling as a distillery single malt release.

Now to be balanced about the story of Independents, this is also where some not so great casks may be put up for sale too. That’s why you want some educated ‘noses’ making the choices of what casks get bought and bottled. That brings me to the subject of this blog, Ed Kohl and ImpEx Beverages.

Ed has been in the spirits business since 1973 working for Gallo as a territory manager.  He got into the Whisky business in 1978 when he joined Monsieur Henri Wine Importers, a division of Pepsico.  This is when Pepsi had inked the deal with Russia to import a little know brand of vodka called Stolichnaya or Stoli as we know it today.

Pepsi wanted experienced high volume sales people and Ed was tapped as one of those.  Pepsi closed that division in 1993. Then Ed started his brokerage business (buying/selling parcels of whisky) based in Chicago.  This is where he met Andrew Symington, a new Independent Bottler under the brand name Signatory, who was trying to get into the complicated US Market.  The bond was immediate and formed the foundation that Ed continued to build until he formed his own company ImpEx in 2008.

Signatory was founded in 1988 and is a family owned and managed company run by Andrew Symington.  While working for Signatory, Ed learned the technique of single cask selection, honing his skills as a “nose”.  He traveled the US doing tastings/seminars explaining to participants the ins and outs of Independent Bottling.  That continued until the importing rights were transferred to Total Beverage Solutions in 2002.  Ed continued with Signatory until 2008.

The most recent feather in their cap was to win import and distribution rights to the newest Islay Single Malt, Kilchoman.

Kilchoman is already making a big impression on the whisky world even though it is the youngest distillery on Islay. (For those unfamiliar with Islay, this is home to peaty whiskies such as Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Bruichladdich, Bowmore and others.)

The Kilchoman Autumn Release 2009, not available in the US, was rated 85 by Jim Murray in the 2010 Whisky Bible. John Hansell of Malt Advocate magazine, rated the same whisky a 90.  The Kilchoman Winter 2010 Release, available in the US, I rate at the high end of 85-90.

Great news to us in the St. Louis area is that Wine Merchant, local spirits purveyor, will have an exclusive cask-strength bottling of Kilchoman available soon, although only 30 bottles will be available.

ImpEx is now bringing in their 2011 bottlings, which will soon be gracing shelves in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Georgia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Nevada, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Their new 2011 bottlings are: Ardmore 18 yr old, cask 4995, Bourbon barrel aged, 46% ABV; Glendullan 11, cask 16543, Wine hogshead aged 46% ABV; Isle of Jura 14, cask 5223, Bourbon barrel aged, 46% ABV; Mortlach 15, cask 7281, Sherry butt aged, first refill, cask strength 55.2% ABV, Strathisla 10, cask 20798, Wine Hogshead aged, 46% ABV; and a Teaninich 28, cask 7704, Bourbon barrel aged, cask strength 46.8% ABV.

The outstanding dram of the 2011 bottlings, for me, has to be the Mortlach 15. Beautiful deep ruby/golden color; sherry, rich baked cinnamon/apple pie pastry, dark berries and nuttiness on the nose and on the palate a rich, oily, malty, mouth-coating dram with a rich cream over black cherry center followed by raisins and pecans. The finish has a long pleasant spiciness in the back of the palate like roasting apples with cinnamon.

My rating for this bottling, a 90-95. Expect to pay about $85-95.

I asked Ed what the process of choosing casks for Chieftain’s bottling entails.

“I will either look at casks in Scotland in my yearly visit to our warehouses or have barrel samples sent to me in

St. Louis.  I then go through the various casks and choose the malts I want.  I will also decide on whether the bottling will be un-chill filtered, cask strength or bottled at 46%ABV.”

What is the difference between the way Signatory and Macleod obtain their casks?

“The process is similar with one exception.  Ian Macleod is a large independent bottler of many Scotch whisky brands, both single malts and blends.  For this reason, they have access to a large selection of single malt casks that are going to be used in the various blends.  They can ‘cull out’ casks that they think are unique or special.  As a result, they pick from a large pool of casks.  Signatory will get casks but they will come from trading parcels, or buying casks from brokers or people they know in the business. Signatory is not buying casks for “fillings” or to put into blended whisky.”

How did the Kilchoman import/distribution arrangement come about?

“Kilchoman came to us through the recommendation of John Hansell of Malt Advocate magazine. 

We have known each other ever since I started with Signatory in 1995.  Anthony Willis, the owner of Kilchoman, asked John for a recommendation and he suggested ImpEx.  I am very thankful and now we rep Kilchoman for the all of the US.”

Once a distributor/importer inks a deal with a distillery or independent bottler, that is just the beginning of a tortuous process of approval, state by state, to sell that particular bottling in that particular state and finally to get it onto the shelf in your local liquor store.

How different is it to register from state to state?

“Every state requires separate registrations and filing fees. This is a very difficult process.  Some states are refereed to as ‘control states,’ meaning the state owns the liquor business.  PA is a good example.  The state controls the sales and distribution of alcohol in the state.  This is a very large revenue producing section of their state budget. The control states tend to have registration processes that are the most time consuming.

“Missouri [where Kohl lives] is not as difficult as other states.  Connecticut requires a $2,000.00 shippers permit and $200.00 per label.  The permit must be renewed every year.  And the label permit will last for 3 years.  The problem I have is that with single cask bottlings, I only have about 350 bottles of a Scotch with that label for all 23 states in which we sell.  When that is sold then I will need to register another bottling label. The State of Missouri only requires a $500.00 per year shippers permit and there is no charge for the label.  The problem we face here is getting rare merchandise out of NY, Boston, and LA.  In some cases, inventory can be sold there rather than going through the paper work that it takes here.  I live here so guess who is coming to town.”

As Ed says of his task of nosing and choosing single malts, “Its a dirty rotten job,” but oh what a job!

If you are exploring the diverse flavors of single malt whisky, be sure to explore the wide range of bottlings that Independent Bottlers place at your fingertips. Pour a dram and...

Slainte!

Distributors of Chieftain’s Bottlings, in the US, can be found here.

Other Media on Independent Bottlers:

http://www.ianmacleod.com/

http://www.gordonandmacphail.com/

http://www.totalbeveragesolution.com/signatory/

http://www.duncantaylor.com/

http://www.douglaslaing.com/

http://www.adelphidistillery.com/

http://www.wmcadenhead.com/

http://www.blackadder.com/

http://www.dewarrattray.com/

http://www.hartbrothers.co.uk/

http://www.smws.com/

http://www.masterofmalt.com/master-of-malt-bottlings/

http://www.vintagemaltwhisky.com/

http://www.wineandwhisky.com/  (The Queen of the Moorlands)

www.compassboxwhisky.com

http://www.maltmadness.com/whisky/bottlers.html