An article by Ted Simmons
In 2015, Daniel Whittington was teaching a class at the Whiskey Marketing School in Austin, Texas, when he arrived at the independent-bottling portion of his lesson. While it was standard practice in Scotland, he explained, transparently sourcing casks from specific distilleries under one private label, the practice had yet to gain any traction in American whiskey. “I said in the room, ‘If you guys don’t do this, then I’m gonna freakin’ do it,’” Whittington recalls. “Because this needs to happen.”
A year later, Whittington started Crowded Barrel, one of only a few American independent bottlers to emerge in recent years. As was the case with Whittington, who founded the Whiskey Marketing School, and who hosts two whiskey-focused YouTube shows, these companies are often started by devoted whiskey professionals who have long admired the likes of Gordon & Macphail, Douglas Laing, Signatory, and Cadenhead. As the popularity of American whiskey has grown, with 2,235 distilleries in business as of 2023, it has become harder for consumers to taste it all, especially smaller craft operations that lack broader marketing and distribution. Independent bottlers can curate and elevate, often showcasing aspects of a distillery that a consumer wouldn’t normally have access to.
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