Working with Independent Bottlers and Blending Houses

To some distillers, the terms “independent bottler” and “blending house” evoke negative connotations. That’s largely due to the vast number of “white label” products that have hit the shelves in recent years. Some of those products are shrouded in a lack of transparency that leaves both producers and consumers feeling bitter, misled, and bamboozled.

However, a new generation of independent bottlers and blending houses has begun to emerge. (A disclosure up front: I’m a cofounder of one of those blending houses—more on that below.) Many of these firms have a mission and ethos that not only might serve to help the craft-whiskey community, but also may help to reshape what American whiskey is and could become.

The Background

Let’s start by defining these terms:

• An independent bottler is a company that sources and buys whiskey from a distillery and bottles it under their own label or brand—also known as “white labeling.”
• A blending house is a company that sources and buys whiskey from multiple distilleries and then blends those whiskeys together, bottling them under their own label or brand.