Collection
Distillery
At Mood4Whisky you can choose whisky by distillery or bottler, so you know exactly who made your bottle. Here you will find distilleries such as Tomatin, Kingsbarns, Penderyn and Thy alongside independent bottlers such as Cadenhead, Duncan Taylor and Living Souls. Ideal if you have a favourite producer, or want to discover how differently two houses treat whisky from the same source.
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A distillery largely shapes the character of its spirit through its stills, yeast, fermentation time and choice of cut; the cask does the rest. Brands such as Compass Box, W.D. O'Connell and The Uncharted Whisky Co. do not distil themselves, but select casks from others and blend or bottle them in their own way.
Would you rather choose by flavour than by producer? Then use the M4W Flavour Compass. Terms such as single cask, cask strength and official bottling are explained in the M4W Whisky Glossary.
What is the difference between a distillery and an independent bottler?
A distillery makes its own whisky, while an independent bottler buys casks from distilleries and bottles them under its own name. In this collection, Tomatin, Kingsbarns, Penderyn, Isle of Harris and Thy are distilleries. Cadenhead, Duncan Taylor, Living Souls, The Uncharted Whisky Co. and W.D. O'Connell are bottlers: they select casks, sometimes mature them further and often bottle them cask by cask, without colouring or chill filtration.
Why is the distillery name sometimes missing from the label?
Because many distilleries do not allow bottlers to use their name, in order to protect their own brand. The bottler then uses a description or a name of its own. The Uncharted Whisky Co., for example, names its Orkney 20 Year Old only after the island. On our product pages we state what is known about the origin, and if the source has not been officially confirmed, we say so plainly.
Can you compare whisky from the same distillery bottled by different bottlers?
Yes, and this collection lets you do it straight away. GlenAllachie is available from Cadenhead (17 years, sherry cask) and from Duncan Taylor (Octave 2008), while Tullibardine and Laphroaig come from both Living Souls and Duncan Taylor. Tomatin can be tasted as an official bottling and as a 12 Year Old from The Uncharted Whisky Co. That way you discover how cask, age and the bottler's choices change the same spirit.
How does a distillery shape the flavour of whisky?
Mainly through the spirit that comes off the stills, before the cask has done its work. The shape and size of the stills, fermentation time, the number of distillations and the point of the cut make the spirit lighter or heavier. Penderyn, for instance, uses its own Faraday still for a clean, fruity spirit. To taste a pure house style, try the Kingsbarns New Make Spirit, with no cask maturation at all.
What is the difference between an official bottling and a single cask?
An official bottling comes from the distillery itself and is usually assembled from many casks for a consistent house style, such as the Tomatin 12 YO Sherry Cask or the Penderyn Gold Range Madeira. A single cask comes from just one cask, which makes it unique and limited, often at cask strength. Examples here include the Kingsbarns Single Cask, the Cadenhead casks and the Duncan Taylor Glentauchers Den Haag.