Strong Water

December 15, 2021

During our trip to Scotland, we visited a lot of distilleries and tasted a lot of whisky. We sampled a lot of drams, and learned a ton. In particular, we were introduced to the concept of bottlers, and how distillers will sell certain casks to other parties… who then take that distiller’s whisky and continue to age it longer, or put it in different casks, or perform any number of other bits of sorcery.

What ends up happening: a unique cask that, once bottled, will never really exist again.

While in Scotland, we learned about and got to sample several bottlers: Adelphi, Infrequent Flyers, Scotch Malt Whisky Society. We’ve been consistently impressed with Adelphi (thanks to Charlotte at the Malt Room in Inverness), and have since become members of the SMWS.

Of the drams we tasted in Scotland, among the top 3 for Liz was an Adelphi Benrinnes 13.

Recently, she saw that Adelphi released a Benrinnes 10, and she immediately began trying to figure out how to get a bottle (and get it shipped to us in the States). For those that aren’t familiar, the process of shipping alcohol internationally is a bit of a nightmare. Certain shops only work with certain shippers, and each place seems to have its own unique rules as to what is and is not permissible.

Example: one of the places I contacted shipped to the US, but not IL, IN, or MI (the only states seemed to be on the far East or West coast). Very odd.

To top it off, the charge for shipping is typically crazy expensive. In some cases, the shipping is more than the actual bottle itself.

Such was the case for this Adelphi Benrinnes 10. I was able to find one place that did ship to the US, but by the time I got a hold of them… they only had one bottle left in stock.

Remember: with bottlers, they’re working with individual casks. And that single cask only produces a set number of bottles (say 250 or so). One those bottles are gone, they are gone.

The place I was talking to was The Strong Water Company. I decided to just buy the bottle (since it was their last), and we’d figure out the shipping somehow. And that’s when I heard some magical words: “My friend is actually flying in to Chicago tomorrow.”

Long story short: we were able to work things out where we were able to receive our order in a matter of days, as opposed to weeks. All through a lot of extra above and beyond effort from the good folks at the Strong Water Company.

In addition to the Adelphi bottle, we also decided to get a bottle of their own (a single cask release of Macduff, aged 9 years). Which I do have to say was quite tasty, with a great taste of toffee that I’ve been going back to a lot.