r/Scotch • u/finnpass • 1d ago

Buying IB’s

So I am really getting into independent bottlers like Cadenheads, Signatory, Adelphi, etc. But how do you know what you are buying? Some shops near me have some open bottles but a lot of times there are so few bottles produced that I have no way of trying before buying. Are you guys just buying them with the information on the label/good experiences with previous bottles from the distillery/bottler?

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u/b1uepenguin Whiskers 1d ago

Single cask bottlings are one of the big market niches that independent bottlers have filled in the last couple of decades (prior to that, if you wanted a single malt, that was often where you looked since most distilleries did not have their own line-- that has changed). As a result, you run into exactly what youʻve described, lots of single cask products with only a couple hundred bottles in the outturn.

I look for two things straight away; is this a bottler or a label that I have lots of faith in and is this a distillery I already know I like.

If the answer to both of those is a yes or a maybe, then I will look at cask type, age, vintage, etc., to see whether it sounds like something I am likely to enjoy and whether I think the price matches my desire. I have bought far too many similar bottles in the past, and generally I try hard to avoid having too many bottles that might be very similar any more (but rules are made to be broken...)

So a lot of this comes down to experience with the bottlers, distilleries, or the expectations I might have for how a particular age or maturation might play out (even when not really familiar with the distillery).

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u/finnpass 1d ago

Thank you so much for your answer, that does help a lot. As said in my other comment I am really interested in IB’s from distilleries with not a lot of their own range of bottlings so I will just need to look more at the cask types, abv, age, and then just take a small gamble

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u/whisky_anon_drama 1d ago

Another recommendation is to look for shops that also operate as bars, or to go to whisky festivals. You'll be able to ask for recommendations at the former and try before you commit to a bottle. The latter you'll get free samples , so just look at what interests you and try.