Independent bottler in the spotlight: Signatory Vintage
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Aug
At Whisky Foundation, we often talk of our favourite bottlings and our favourite cask-finishes. We often talk of whisky regions and whisky terms and the whisky industry in general.
But, for an independent bottling site, we feel like we’ve neglected talking about independent bottlers a little.
Well, that’s all about to change.
From now on, each month, we’re going to pick out an independent bottler to celebrate.
We’re going to give you a bit of history, a bit of insight and a little taste of what makes them so good. (Oh, we’ll also be recommending some of their whiskies too, just to keep it interesting.)
So, to kick things off, we thought we’d start with one of the big boys of independent bottling: Signatory Vintage.
The History of Signatory Vintage
In 1988, brothers Andrew and Brian Symington started Signatory Vintage to sell buy and sell whisky with a twist.
Their name – as well as the original business model – came from the idea of having every bottle signed by a celebrity before it was sold.
(The idea never got off the ground, but the name stuck around.)
However, it took a while for them to be granted a licence to bottle whisky.
4 years, in fact.
And while most people would just give up and move onto another project, the Symington brothers dug deep and persisted.
Instead of moping around, they spent those four years travelling around Scotland, sourcing, buying and storing whiskies from a whole host of distilleries.
And, as soon as they were granted a license, they began bottling and hand-labelling everything from their HQ in Edinburgh, and introducing the world to an extra special collection of single malt independent bottlings.
What makes Signatory Vintage so special?
For a start, they bottle one cask at a time, capitalizing on the unique colour and flavour characteristics of each individual cask. All-natural malts are sourced from the best distilleries in Scotland, selecting the best single batches and bottling only the finest casks within those batches. The resulting ‘single, single, single malts’ they release are about as exclusive as it gets.
Second of all, their bottlings are usually very easy on the eye. The idea of adding value to the whisky from the bottle may have taken a detour around celebrity scribbles, but the ethos is still there; these independent bottlings are very nice to look at.
But it’s not about the bottle, is it?
Signatory Vintage have three main ranges: their regular range (bottled at 43% ABV), a cask strength range and a non-chill-filtered range.
And they’re all consistently good (although we’re particularly fond of their cask strength range).
And finally – this is the really special part – they’ve released whiskies from mothballed distilleries. In a very real sense, certain Signatory bottlings are the last chance to taste whiskies from distilleries that are no longer operating.
In 2015, for example, they released a 50-year single malt from the mothballed Glen Mhor that had been distilled in 1965 and finished for 88 months in Oloroso sherry oak by Signatory. By all accounts, it was quite something. (We’re gutted to have missed out.)
Our favourite Signatory independent bottlings:
OK, we might not have tried the Glen Mhor, but we have tried quite a few Signatories. And, although it wasn’t an easy task, we’ve picked out a few favourites.
(If you’d like to decide which one to try for yourself, you can see our wide range of Signatories in our store.)
For those new to Signatory:
This bottle is a wallet-friendly treat. Distilled on June 2nd, 1998 at Bowmore Distillery on Islay, then matured in a hogshead for 16 years and bottled at cask strength 54.3% on March 4th, 2015. No added coloring either, which we’re all for.
For the discerning Signatory drinker:
A treat for Ardbeg fans – this stunning old single cask Ardbeg was bottled by Signatory in October 2016. This whisky was distilled in 1991 and has been matured for 25 years in a Refill Sherry Hogshead. Limited to just 279 bottles, this is a bit of a collector’s piece.
For the Signatory (or independent bottling) devotee:
This is quite the treat. Distilled at the Glen Grant distillery in 1967, this bottle aged for 46 years. 46 years! That’s quite something, even amongst well-aged whiskies. It spent almost half a decade in sherry hogshead, which has created a deep and wonderfully balanced whisky. Go on, treat yourself.
