Irish Whiskey Chaser

    Independent bottling is where a firms sole business is buying casks and selling them under their own Name/brand, I am also going to include some well known whisky retailers in this also. This is predominantly a Scottish affair but I for one am thankful that these firms have seen fit to bottle Irish Whiskey too. These bottlings, especially with single cask releases, offer the enthusiast a rare opportunity to sample Irish Whiskey in it's purest form.

 The following are the Independent bottlers that I know that have bottled Irish Whiskey.

If you know of any others please contact me.

   (Click on the bottle name to view picture if available)

   Acorn              Adelphi  (Limerick Distillery)

   Berry Bros & Rudd  (Croi na Mona) Blackadder  (A drop of the Irish) 

   William Cadenhead     Celtic Whiskey Compagnie  (Clonmel)  

   Henry Downes & Co Ltd   

   First Spirits       

   Geniess - Bar

   Hennessy na-Geanna     

   Impressive (Japan)      Invergordon (Erin's Isle)    

   Jon, Mark & Robbo

   James MacArthur     Ian MacLeod  (Magilligan)   Martin's Genuss Ecke

   Murray McDavid      Milroys of Soho

   Nectar (Belguim)  

   Oddbins (Slieve na gCloc)     

   Dewar Rattary

   Signatory                    SMWS

Not much information on these guys but all I know is they are a Japanese Bottler.  

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    Adelphi are a long established scottish whisky firm. They were one of the first independant bottlers to release whiskey from the Cooley distillery. Released under a ficticious Limerick Distillery. 

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    Berry Bros & Rudd established in 1698 is one of the oldest Wine & Spirit merchants in the world. Like many businesses of this type they are still a family owned private company. Bottled their own irish WHiskey in 2006 called 'Croi na Mona' which literally translates as 'Heart of Peat'.

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    Blackadder is another independent bottler which had the foresight to bottle an Irish whiskey. A very rare independent bottling of Bushmills at the time.

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 Cadenheads is one of Scotlands oldest and biggest independent whisky bottlers.

Previously to celebrate their 150th Anniversary they released a selection of Irish whiskeys most of which are from closed distilleries and highly collectable.

Recently Cadenheads have being releasing a peated Irish Single Malt whiskey from Cooley every year since 2003. This is a rare chance to see the progression of a whiskey as it ages year on year and each vintage has not disappointed.

I had heard rumours that there may have been an early version of this in a non peated format but have not been able to confirm as of yet.

If anybody has any further information please contact me with details.

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    Celtic Whisky Compagnie Ltd is a French firm located in Brittany which states that it specialises in whisk(e)y from celtic origin. They have created their own brand of Irish Whiskey call 'Clonmel' which is named after a town in Ireland. They also bottle single cask whiskies under the 'Spirit Safe & Cask' range.

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   Henry Downes is a little known Irish whiskey. Founded in 1797 Henry Downes & Co Ltd became a thriving spirit merchant in Waterford City. Even though the day of the spirit merchant is long gone they still remain in business as a family run bar and continue to bottle their own brand of Irish whiskey on their premises to sell in their bar and off Licence.  

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   First Spirits (Sté Dugas - Paris) appears to be a French bottler and has other spirits under the same brand. Not much more information on the company though.

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    German Retailer and on-line ebay seller that hand bottles a Cooley 4yo whiskey.

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    Not a lot of information on this but it is an Irish Peated Whiskey bottled by cognac giant Hennessey for the Japanese market. Probably a marketing campaign to improve the the Hennessey name in a market that saw falling cognac sales and stellar whiskey sales. 

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   Not 100% sure on Impressive but it seems to be an Independent from Japan. Only aware of one Cooley so far being bottles. 

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 When Cooley were in the early stages of production they hit sever financial problems. Invergordon came to their aid by purchasing large amounts of cooley stock. Invergordon then launched Erin's Isle on an unsuspecting public and turned out to be a decent seller.Erin's Isle raised a few eyebrows at the time as it was an unusual Irish whiskey that was a single malt and it was peated.

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Three friends, brothers Jon and Mark Geary & David Robertson in 2002 set up the Jon, Mark & Robbo Easy Drinking company (JMR) to introduce whisky to a younger audience with out any pretensions. They tried to simply whisky and came out with 3 whiskies called 'The Smoky Peaty One,' 'The Rich Spicy One,' and 'The Smooth Sweeter One'. Not sure if they are still going as I can't find their website but the 'The Smooth Sweeter One' was first an all Irish malt then it progressed to a vatting of Irish & Scotch and possibly went to an all scotch before being shelved. I've decided to include the vatting of Irish and Scotch as this would also have appeal to the Irish collector.

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 James MacArthur, established in 1982, is a small independent bottler. Their aim is to provide bottlings from not so well-known distilleries.

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 Ian MacLeaod Distillers Ltd were established in 1933 and another long running family business in the independent scotch whisky industry. They too have created their own brand name (Magilligan) under which they have launched their Irish Whiskey. The whiskey is bottled in batches of 4-5 casks per batch which is unusual. They also came out with a vintage expression. The Magilligan described as Pure Pot Still is actually a single malt and not a true PPS in the Irish tradition. I would imagine that this is not peated.

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    German Retailer and on-line ebay seller that hand bottles a Cooley 5yo whiskey.

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Murray McDavid is the independent bottling company which also owns Bruichladdich Scotch Whisky distillery. Bruichladdichs master distillery Jim McEwan is also the driving force behind Murray McDavid. Because of this I'm going to include any Irish Bruichladdich Valinch bottlings also.

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 Milroys of Soho is a long established and well respected London Whiskey & Wine retailer. Founded by Wallace Milroy in 1964 and since 2005 have bottled whiskey under their own label 'Milroy's of Soho Single Cask collection'.

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     Large chain of off licence stores that concentrate on wine but stock spirits also. They even have bottled numerous whiskies & single malts exclusively for their stores as well as stocking old faithfuls. Slieve na gCloc was their Irish offering.

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     Another institution in the Independent bottlers league.Even though established in 1868 it is probably not as well-known outside Scotland as some of the other firms. Now heavily involved in releasing single cask malt whiskies.

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Signatory is another one of the big names in independent bottling in Scotland. However they seem to have only release one Irish whiskey under their own label. Any thing to the contrary please contact me.

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SMWS or the Scotch Malt Whisky Society was set up in the early eighties by a small group of whisky enthusiasts. 20 odd years later it is a roaring success and it is probably the biggest whisky society in the world. It is also probably the most respected independent bottler of whisky in the industry but their products are only available to members. Further the SMWS only bottle single malts and only at cask strength to give their members whisky in it's purest form. The society has a curious method of using numbers to identify their whiskey rather than name it. The first number is the distillery and the second is the release number. This enables them to bottle whisky which would normally not be allowed to be bottled by independent bottlers as some distilleries refuse to sell casks to be further sold by independents under the distillery name.

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   Some Photo's Reproduced with the kind permission of www.whiskyauction.com/

 * Bottles I currently own