A.D. Rattray

The still young independent bottler was founded in 2002 by Tim Morrison. At that time it was still known as A. Dewar Rattray. The bottling of single malt casks takes centre stage, but A.D. Rattray also releases small batches. The history of A.D. Rattray began in 1868, when Andrew Dewar Rattray started importing French wine, Italian spirits and olive oil to Glasgow. At the same time, the company began to store and blend Scotch whisky. In addition to trading, the company also exclusively distributed the products of the Stronachie distillery. The company was dissolved during the economic crisis of the 1920s. Stronachie was finally closed in 1928. Following the death of Andrew Dewar Rattray and the economic problems caused by the crisis, the company was sold to William Walker & Co. in 1938. Stanley P. Morrison, the descendant of Andrew Dewar Rattray and father of the current chairman Tim Morrison, also completed his training at the company, which also sold whisky. A year later, Stanley P. Morrison and William Walker's daughter Elisabeth married, uniting the two important whisky families.

Stanley founded his own company in the 1950s (which was later renamed Morrison Bowmore Distillers) and in the following years bought the distilleries Bowmore (1963), Glen Garioch (1970) and Auchentoshan (1984). Tim Morrison, Stanley's son, was already working in his father's family business at the time. After the Morrisons sold their distilleries to Beam Suntory, Tim invested his shares in whisky casks in 2002. He acquired the naming rights to Andrew Dewar Rattray and Stronachie a few decades after they were established. The first of the acquired casks were bottled in 2004 and sold under the Andrew Dewar Rattray brand. After legal disputes arose with the blend manufacturer Dewar's in 2008, the bottler changed its name to A.D. Rattray.

A.D. Rattray's best-known and largest bottling series is the Cask Collection. In this series, the whiskies from the independent bottler are offered as single casks. The company buys whisky casks from distilleries in all six whisky regions of Scotland. They usually only produce a few bottles. All of them are not chill-filtered and contain no colouring. New special bottlings are released four times a year. The oldest and best matured casks in the A.D. Rattray warehouse are selected for the Vintage Cask Collection. These are usually special distilleries and vintages that are rarely found as independent bottlings. The Casks of Scotland range consists of small batch single malts, each of which is intended to capture the character of one of the whisky regions of Islay, Orkney and Speyside. The respective distilleries for the small batches are not disclosed; it is all about the typical flavour profile of a region. It was only a few years ago that A.D. Rattray breathed new life into the Stronachie Malt. Tim Morrison is in possession of an original bottle from 1904, which, after much experimentation, was used as a model to launch a 10-year-old and an 18-year-old bottling in memory of his ancestor. The brand now includes single malt from Benrinnes, which is very similar to the old whisky. A.D. Rattray also offers bottlings in lesser-known ranges, some of which are only available exclusively from the company itself: House Malt, From the Cask, Warehouse Collection, Private Label and the Blend Bank Note.