The Maker Phil and Simon Thompson are well known to whisky nerds as the managers of the Dornoch Castle Hotel in the northern Highlands - about an hour up the road from Inverness. After a successful ‘kickstarter’ in 2017 they established Dornoch Distillery in a shed and set about becoming an independent bottler to keep the income coming while maturation was underway.   Their philosophy from the start has been to make traditional whisky using traditional techniques. The problem

The Maker The Octave series is from independent bottler Duncan Taylor. The story of Duncan Taylor goes back nearly 90 years to 1938 where they were founded in Glasgow as a cask brokerage. After several decades blending whiskies and exporting them around the world the company was acquired by an American named Abe Rosenberg. He then unsurprisingly focused on building that business through premiumisation (sounds familiar) by ensuring that every blend produced was made of the bes

The Maker Little Brown Dog Spirits was founded in 2018 by Chris Reed and Andrew Smith at an Aberdeenshire farm. Named for the family dog which has since sadly died, the company quickly made a name for itself among the ever expanding roster of scotch independent bottlers. Like several others it feels like the production of their own whisky is an inevitability, with gin production well underway. But until that happens we'll have to make do with frequent releases of indi stocks

The Maker Douglas Laing was established in 1948 on the back of the post Second World War whisky boom. At the time the story goes that Fred Douglas Laing (presumably Fred wasn't considered a sufficiently whiskish name) launched the business with a few casks and the rights to use the name of then well known blended scotch King of Scots. Over the decades since the company has passed to his son, Fred Jr, and built its reputation off the back of a wide range of trademarked blends

The Maker What is there to say about Springbank which hasn’t been said many times before? Over the past decade it has easily become the most desired Scotch, if not whiskies in general, on the planet. This desire has led many releases to become instantly unobtainable to the average drinker, with resale prices rising beyond good reason on auction sites. In some ways this demand is starting to cool of late, with lower age releases sticking on shelves. But demand for higher aged

The Maker Ballechin is the name for the peated variant of whisky from Edradour distillery on the outskirts of Pitlochry in the Highlands....

The Maker Turntable Spirits is the brainchild of Glasgow based brothers Ally and Gordon Stevenson. They are the second generation of...

The Maker Little Brown Dog Spirits was founded in 2018 by Chris Reed and Andrew Smith at an Aberdeenshire farm. Named for the family dog...

The Maker Tamnavulin was established in 1966 by Invergordon Distillers Ltd but had little success or notoriety given its primary focus on...

The Maker Adelphi was founded in 1993 by Jamie Walker. The name is derived from Glasgow's Adelphi distillery - which has links to...

The Maker If you ever visit Ardbeg on the rocky and beautiful southern coast of Islay the first thing they will tell you is that the...

The Maker Infrequent Flyers is a range of single malts from the Alistair Walker Whisky Company. Like all other independent bottlers, AWWC...

The Maker Bunnahabhain is one of the great Islay distilleries. Founded in 1881 on the shores of the Sound of Islay overlooking Jura,...

The Maker Kilkerran is produced at the Glengyle distillery in Campbeltown. It was originally founded in 1872 by William Mitchell, brother...

The Maker Longrow is a brand rather than a distillery. One of the three brands housed at the much coveted Springbank distillery in...

The Maker   Murray McDavid is the 1994 brainchild of established whisky and wine merchants Gordon Wright, Mark Reynier and Simon...

The Maker Hunter Laing remains a family business having been established as a whisky blender in post-war Glasgow. Much like similar...

The Maker What do you do if you’re running a highly successful and respected distillery on the Isle of Arran? If you’re Arran Distillery...

The Maker Phil and Simon Thompson are well known to whisky nerds as the managers of the Dornoch Castle Hotel in the northern Highlands -...

The Maker Simply Whisky is the passion of two business partners who have been running whisky related events since 2006. These events...