Please Help

[gyoung]

Im new to this forum and recently have discovered a passion for whisky. I have a few questions which are bugging me.
Why do distilleries use other companies to bottle their product e.g port ellen whisky bottled by signatory. Are distillery bottlings more collectable and are the bottlings by other companies just as reputable as the distilliery they originally came from. I am allitle unsure how the process works when lets say for example signatory bottle a port ellen product.

Look forward to any response, appreciate any information you can offer me

Thank you

Gavin

[blenderm]

Some 3rd party bottlers do buy new malt from a few distilleries and mature it in their own casks, most distilleries won't sell either new spirit or mature whisky to 3rd party bottlers. The majority of these casks for bottling are bought as mature whisky from blending companies who do have contracts with the distilleries for new malt whisky. This normally means that it's filled into blending casks and is surplus to their blending needs, they fill on a 6 to 12 year sales forecast so there's always the chance of their filling too much.

It's really up to you whether you think the bottlings are collectable, personally I don't collect but rather drink them, and also whether the quality is as good as you'd like. Like any whisky you can't tell the quality until you've tried it - have a look at the thread on samples

[gyoung]

thanks for the response, much appreciated, will check the samples link out now

gav

[drammerjon]

While most whisky is made for blends (which dominate the whisky markets by volume of sales), distilleries mix their casks together so that the bottles that are sold at retail have a consistent flavor. Independent bottlers (i.e. Signatory, Gordon & MacPhails, Cheiftans, et al) get a cask from the distillery or age the distillery's whisky in their own casks to craft a unique expression of that whisky. There are a great many independent bottlings that are quite good, and some can be bad. But the benefit of the independent bottlers is getting that unique expression of the whisky.