Independent bottlings provide some of the most exciting and interesting whisky drinking experiences available. While much of the whisky found on our shelves has been produced and released by the distillery itself, a portion of the liquid they make finds its way to independent bottlers. Distilleries have a long history of trading casks of both new make spirit and older stocks between themselves, which are sometimes put up for sale enabling others to grab precious, rare stocks. Independent bottlers then have total control over how long to let that liquid mature, and in which casks, resulting in many unusual, ancient and deeply intriguing whisky that simply would never made otherwise. Recently, many younger whiskies are being released by independent bottles, owing to the increased quality of casks and understanding of the maturation process. Keep a look out for these new releases and for those ancient, super-rare bottlings of oft-closed distilleries; they will take your whisky drinking to a whole new level!