Before I worked in whisky, independent bottling was a layer of the industry I didn’t often encounter, despite working in and around drinks in the decade before.
Put simply, at the most visible level of Scotch whisky – let’s say, for argument’s sake, the spirits section of a supermarket – a consumer generally sees what the marketing budgets of brands want them to see, whether that’s single malt brands or the big blenders that make up most of the market.
Fresh from a launch event in Mayfair, Dram5 is a brand that presents itself as a new whisky discovery club, but I think is actually more interesting than that name suggests.
The problem that can arise with discovery clubs or subscription services in drinks is that the same marketing forces are at work – in the box, you may find entry-level expressions easily negotiated from brands that serve more as an advertisement for the brands than a true sense of discovery for the customer.
Dram5’s proposition is a design and community-led tasting box of five 50ml bottles, but it is very much not about manufacturing intrigue out of entry-level whiskies from big brands.
A look at the back of the box underlines that these aren’t drams you’ll find at your local supermarket. They’re not even single malts you’ll find at a specialist retailer. In fact, they’re whiskies you won’t find anywhere else.
Independent bottlers in Scotch whisky
To understand Dram5 – or, more specifically, the whiskies you’ll find within the box – you’ve first got to get your head around the practice of independent bottling.
Big-name brands putting out single malt whiskies may be the best-known format to the average consumer, but it’s only in the last few decades that this became mainstream. And while this practice is the focus of most of Scotch whisky’s marketing efforts, the vast majority of the volume of whisky produced at the 250 or so distilleries in Scotland is given to blends, from Johnnie Walker to Royal Salute, Compass Box and more.
Independent bottlers, however, exist both outside of, and in parallel to, single malt brands and blends. This somewhat clandestine but historic part of the industry is built around canny bottlers buying casks directly from distilleries, ageing them, and then releasing them under their own branding – usually with the distillery named, but sometimes not, and released as vattings from one distillery or as single casks.
Bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail are pretty much as old as the industry itself, and actually played a key role in the formation of single malt as we know it today; others, like Signatory Vintage or Elixir Distillers, are newer.
But the key to their success is in their selection of casks that, when judiciously aged and released at the right time, can show a different, more idiosyncratic side to a much-loved distillery; or showcase a distillery almost never seen in the mainstream market as a single malt.
Would-be whisky geeks looking to get a clear picture of the diversity available in Scotch whisky will generally find their way to independent bottlings in time.
What is Dram5?
Then there’s Dram5. A quick glance would see this more analogous to the whisky subscription model, one or two of which have found success in recent years. But founder Yu Song has been buying casks for the last few years with a to-be-established distribution model in waiting. His resultant brand is then, in my eyes at least, a new breed of independent bottler, whose use of 50ml tasting bottles – all drawn from single casks and bottled at strengths either side of 50% ABV – allows its customers to more quickly build a fuller knowledge of under-the-radar whiskies and distilleries for the same outlay as a bottle.
There’s an app to accompany the experience, and if you want to chart your journey, there’s space to create a personal digital archive of bottles and tasting notes, and pursue a grand (and unspecified) prize in doing so.
Key to the proposition, though, is a gamified element – boxes contain samples at random within the 16 premium distilleries (including well-known names like Laphroaig and Glenrothes alongside cult favourites Linkwood and Blair Athol), but 35% of the 6,000 in the initial run will contain one or more of its Rare selection – including 32-year-old Glen Grant and a 28-year-old Ben Nevis from around the time of a golden era of distilling for this Highland distillery, among others.
5% will contain an Ultra Rare – in the current run 34-year-old Ardbeg, a 34-year-old Macallan, or, perhaps most tantalisingly, a 36-year-old single malt from closed distillery Littlemill. What would be in mine? I was eager to find out.
What’s in the box?
Dram5 had won design awards before it was officially launched, so needless to say its aesthetics are a key part of its brand (another point of difference between it and many established indie bottlers), and a signifier of the audience it’s trying to reach.
The bright yellow cube-shaped packaging is an MC Esher-like box of clever hinges and multifaceted surfaces, which first reveal a tasting booklet featuring notes and background on all of the whiskies in the current collection, plus a flavour wheel for those looking to put names to notes, and finally lifting to showcase the five dreidel-shaped and colour-coded bottles included.
In mine was a 14-year-old Benriach, aged in a first-fill cask previously used for Hungary’s iconic Tokaji sweet wine, with pear drop and lemon zest notes on the nose and a malty, gently sweet profile on the palate and finish.
Also in the box was a peated Glenturret, which offered a robustly smoky take on the Highland distillery’s sweetly spiced spirit character; an impressive 18-year-old Balmenach full of herbal mint humbug and fruitcake flavours; a 15-year-old Aultmore, and a 13-year-old Mannochmore.
The latter three are illuminating of the model: Balmenach’s appearance in Diageo’s Flora & Fauna series is the only place you’ll find a proprietary bottling of these historic distilleries whose single malt is usually reserved for blending, with the rest only available from indie bottlers.
We’ve been told for some time that what people love is old whisky. Whether or not that’s true, the fact is that a 30-year-old official bottling from a name distillery is out of touch for many buyers – especially those newer to whisky, and who plan to open and taste rather than invest.
Dram5, then, is a pleasing antidote to so-called ‘statement whiskies’, where for under £100, a whisky lover could stumble upon something distilled more than three decades ago at a cult distillery, and enjoy the snapshot in time that’s a draw for so many whisky lovers.
Even taking aside the gamble on an old or rare dram, its selection of whiskies is very clearly curated by experts and put together inspired by, and to inspire in others, the love of the drink. Its award-winning packaging notes this is a service for “the connoisseur and the curious” – I think there’s something superb on offer for both here.
First 6,000 boxes priced at £95; dram5.com
