2007-2022 | 15 Years
Over the past fifteen years, The Whisky Barrel has grown from a pokey wee online shop operating from a bedroom in Edinburgh to become a leading, online, truly independent and family-run whisky retailer and independent bottler of Scotch whisky by two brothers from Fife. In 2022, having survived turbulent economic and global crises through the years, The Whisky Barrel is stronger than ever and has both supported and grown along with the Scotch whisky industry. Scooping a prestigious Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2019 and establishing a superb base of whisky-loving customers and international recognition, we are humbled to reach 15 years. With a few website re-designs along the way, we have big plans to celebrate in 2022. And it all started from just a few bottles...
Read on below to check out the list of exclusive whiskies and rums we have released to celebrate out 15h anniversary.
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The Whisky Barrel - Est. 2007
In 2007 The Whisky Barrel was founded as an online whisky shop in Edinburgh by Managing Director, Alastair Brown. Having personally collected a number of limited release bottles of Scotch whisky, many from Orkney, and with a background in running successful e-commerce businesses, the opportunity to take Scotch whisky, one of Scotland's oldest and most recognisable products, 'online' seemed to be a perfect fit. And so, TheWhiskyBarrel.com was born, starting off holding a small stock in a bedroom cupboard. A focus on fine and rare Scotch whisky was a key motivation together with an ambition to export worldwide, direct to the consumer.
Based in central Scotland, and with the ability to source rare, limited and highly sought-after whiskies that usually sat on distillery shop shelves, The Whisky Barrel rapidly grew a reputation for sourcing only the finest Scotch whisky from some of the biggest brands. Family holidays to Orkney saw limited Highland Park bottlings an initial focus. Then Islay came calling. An island with several distilleries in close proximity each with fantastic stories, character and unique whiskies and renowned for its unique 'Feis Ile' Festival bottlings. Bruichladdich was going through its renaissance releasing all sorts of interesting and whimsical bottlings. Port Ellen cost pocket money. These were bottles largely limited to those fortunate enough to visit distilleries or shops in person, in Scotland, if not only on Islay.
With a rapidly growing reputation and stock, it soon became opportune to make the first significant investment in a bespoke retail website. Working with Edinburgh based web ecommerce agency Digital 6, a customer-focussed online retail website was developed. The result of this was that TheWhiskyBarrel.com became an internationally recognised, online whisky merchant synonymous with rare and collectable Scotch, and began forging relationships with whisky collectors and drinkers from all over the world. A truly international spirit.
Scottish Business At Its Heart
As the business developed and more relationships within the whisky industry were established, an early decision was made to focus on independent bottlings of whisky - a decision which has enabled The Whisky Barrel to support some of Scotland's most well-loved independent distilleries, bottling companies and suppliers, many of whom are family-run, just like The Whisky Barrel. Through these relationships we have released over the years a number of incredible collaborations and exclusive bottlings. As a business we continue to concentrate our focus on working with local and Scottish suppliers for all aspects of the business, where possible. From whisky stocks to label printing and design, from trades work to charity support, we try to support Scottish industries and organisations as much as we can.
In 2010 The Whisky Barrel left Scotland's capital and secured warehouse and office space in the Kingdom of Fife: - across the famous Forth Bridge and back to where the family grew up supporting our local area. More space for more whisky. More opportunity to develop relationships with suppliers and distilleries. And a great opportunity to continue growing our fantastic customer base worldwide. A refresh of the website was completed with an updated logo with TheWhiskyBarrel.com taking central focus.
The refreshed website enabled new independent bottlers to be added to The Whisky Barrel catalogue, supplying ever more interesting and exciting single cask and limited whiskies:- key brands including The Old Malt Cask and Old & Rare labels, Carn Mor and Cooper's Choice. But amongst all of this, an exclusive label for The Whisky Barrel was also launched in 2012 - Burns Malt®. Selecting interesting casks, our own label was released to great success. Bottlings of Springbank, Littlemill, Bunnahabhain, Clynelish, Bladnoch, Bowmore to name just a few. These were quality single cask whiskies exclusive to TheWhiskyBarrel.com. Then began the process of purchasing and growing an inventory of The Whisky Barrel's very own casks maturing under bond.
The 10th Anniversary And Beyond
In 2015, eight years after being established, much had changed in the world of whisky and with online retail. Demand for whisky was surging worldwide. Suppliers had more to give to the market and the market was expectant. Customers from all over the world continued to grow with more Scotch whisky clubs, forums and groups appearing online waxing lyrical about our country's finest export. Business was booming and in 2015 The Whisky Barrel firmly established its family status as Alastair's brother Christopher joined the business to help push the business further. Central to maintaining The Whisky Barrel's position as a leading whisky merchant, and to keep ahead of the ever-changing online retail landscape, a third version of TheWhiskyBarrel.com was required. This time a full refresh of the website was on the cards.
Brothers, Alastair and Christopher, working with Digital Six, brought together the third iteration of TheWhiskyBarrel.com in 2016. Cleaner, crisper and with more focus on the whisky products themselves. The world of social media was rapidly taking off - visual media was key so product imagery was central across the site. A new logo was created - cleaner, sharper and more modern to fit the new sleek looking and functioning site. And so in 2016 the new website was launched and just in time for the celebrations...
2017 marked our 10th anniversary. With the new website and a continuous supply of incredible stock from the likes of Signatory Vintage and Hunter Laing, sales soared. Scotch whisky was raising its profile big time. We celebrated out 10th birthday with exclusive bottlings such as the Irish Cooley 13 year old with Exclusive Malts, Dumbarton 30 year old Sovereign and the epic pink label Glenlivet from Signatory.
November 2017 also saw our first campaign to support the Poppyscotland appealPoppyscotland appeal, donating all gift wrapping proceeds through the month to coincide with remembrance. We still support them today and with our customers have raised over £2,000 from this small donation with orders.
Over the following years we released an ever-increasing number of collaborative exclusive whiskies and rums with suppliers. From the stunning 45 year old blended Sovereign, the further orange and yellow label Glenlivets from Signatory. Then came The GlenDronach. A distillery whose modern rise came partly in parallel with The Whisky Barrel. Back when they were a family company, we worked closely with them over the years and in 2018 we released the epic 1993 single cask exclusive #658, followed by four more exclusive casks over the 2018/19 winter:- casks #8314, #8315, #179 and #180. Stunning whiskies that truly showcased the quality of this distillery. Our aim to stock only the finest Scotch whisky was truly being maintained.
2019 - Royal Recognition
For The Whisky Barrel, 2019 provided perhaps the company's proudest and most phenomenal achievements to date. Owing to the continued growth and fantastic support from our customers, The Whisky Barrel was awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise 2019: International Trade. Widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and highly regarded form of recognition for UK business. Usually no more than 150 businesses achieve this recognition on an annual basis. It was a firm statement of how far The Whisky Barrel, a small family-run business that started with only few whisky bottles in a cupboard, had come. A trip to Buckingham Palace at the request of HRH The Prince of Wales and a formal local ceremony to receive the official award signed by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II and presented by the Lord Lieutenant of Fife was the culmination of this success. A truly amazing achievement if we do say so ourselves.
The Whisky Barrel Cask Programme
With the success of our Queen's Award, The Whisky Barrel continued to thrive and release both supplier-stocked and exclusive whisky and we ventured further into rum. In 2019 our programme to bottle and release whiskies from our maturing stock really began to develop as our own cask stock continued to mature. A few releases had trickled out in previous years such as our Strathclyde 30 year old Glasgow Garden Festival bottling and unique St. Ola® Highland Park 8 year old. But in July 2019 we made the first 'huge step' . The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings saw us release a special commemorative bottling. With familial ties to the Armstrong family, there was always an interest in marking the occasion. And with our Deanston 10 year old almost 50 years to the day, we released our special 'One Giant Leap' Apollo 11 whisky. Unsurprisingly, it sold out very quickly and has since become the starting point for many collectors and connoisseur of whisky and space. Then in November 2019, we launched our first fully fledged independent brand of Scotch Whisky - The Whisky Barrel Originals®The Whisky Barrel Originals® was born with an epic Bunnahabhain 10 year old sherry cask stealing the show.
It became apparent in the previous year that The Whisky Barrel, underpinned by our website, needed to take another step forward to build on this success and growth. We launched our new (current) logo with the Originals release. But a complete innovation of the website was needed:- e-commerce never sleeps! And as 2020 rolled into view there never seemed a better time to push ahead. Oh, if we knew what was coming.
2020 - Every Whisky Wants To Be Found
Brexit, US whisky tariffs and Covid-19. Not three things we and the world needed to deal with at once. Many of our plans were put on hold. Ironically despite the global challenges that 2020 brought, the whisky industry seemed to gain more support and following than ever before as online groups and social media did its thing to keep people and whisky connected. Somewhat hampered by supply issues across industry we were delighted to be in the fortunate position of being able to continue supporting many of our suppliers through this challenging time. We also kept the Apollo theme by releasing a 50th anniversary bottling for the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission - a single cask from Highland Park distillery that ended up in the hands of the actual astronauts from the mission, Jim Lovell and Fred Haise!
The moniker 'TWB' (The Whisky Barrel) was becoming more prominent among customers and in June 2020, despite all the challenges, we were delighted to launch the brand new TWB website. And not just a visual refresh but a whole new platform. The whole site was switched over to be a Progressive Web App (PWA). It gave customers the best parts of browsing a regular website but with more contemporary, slick, app-like navigation, a simple and easy to use checkout and vastly improved speeds throughout. It was, and remains to be, a leading platform and way to bring online whisky retailing to customers.
2022 - Reaching 15 Years
Throughout 2020 and 2021 we continued to release exclusive whiskies with our suppliers and several new releases for our Apollo whisky series. We welcomed new suppliers online including The Golden Cask and the legendary Samaroli. We, obviously, celebrated the 51st anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing by releasing our highly anticipated Bowmore 2002 vintage cask. Aged 17 years it sold out almost instantly and has commanded a high premium on the secondary market since.
We teamed up with the wonderful Alistair Walker for an exclusive Infrequent Flyers Teaninich. The US Scotch whisky tariffs were abandoned (hurrah!). And we ended the year in anticipation of the first intention to return man and woman to the moon with our Artemis First Launch Edition Bunnahabhain 30 year old.
Celebrating 2022...
And now, here we are in 2022. We have been working very hard behind the scenes to put something very special together to celebrate. Yes, we have exclusive new whiskies to bring to you. We have a number of exciting collaborations lined up for exclusive releases but central to our celebrations is our plans to do something totally different in the world of Scotch whisky retail. We will reveal more very soon and update this part of the blog. But if we go back to the beginnings of The Whisky Barrel our founder Alastair always says he got into whisky in part because of a passion for Scotch whisky, but as a business it was finding something that can't be downloaded. Well, after 15 years, we're not far off...
*the following has been added to the blog through the year*
15th Anniversary Exclusive Whisky
As a quick side note, we had some superb plans for exclusive whiskies this year. Sadly, due to continuing supply issues and ongoing delays affecting the entire whisky industry and suppliers, we had to knock a few of these on the head. Plans that would usually take a few weeks to put to market are now taking months. Adapting has been on of our fortes over the past 15 years. So not to worry, we have many more of our casks remaining in slumber, waiting for their time. 2023 is already looking very promising for TWB Exclusive whisky!
However, on 8th March 2022, we revealed the first exclusive bottling to mark our 15th anniversary. And as promised, it came with something very special not only in the whisky, but with a pioneering new approach to authenticating your bottle of Scotch whisky.
Our Glen Moray 30 year Old 1991 vintage is the first in our series of 'Portfolio' whiskies to mark our anniversary and each bottle is connected with a unique digital provenance certificate to authenticate each and every bottle. This is an approach we don't see simply for our own bottles, but using the verifiable blockchain technology from Solana, this has the potential to be a game-changer for the whisky industry. Find out more here: TWB Scotch Whisky Club NFT. Now, we have released a trio of whiskies under our TWB Portfolio series including an Annandale 6 Year Old matured in an Oloroso sherry butt and Glasgow 4 Year Old matured in a first fill sherry butt. Both of these features some amazing and unique artwork as part of their Digital Certificates celebrating Robert Burns and all things Glasgow.
Later in March, saw the first of our collaborations celebrating our 15th anniversary. We teamed up with Lindores Distillery, just 10 miles up the road from us, to release an absolutely monster of a sherry cask. As dark as Coca Cola, cask #585 is outrageous. Maintaining the distinct Lindores whisky DNA, the dark and rich sherry cask has elevated the whisky to great effect, and receiving some fantastic feedback and reviews. (VERY, very last bottles remain: Lindores Abbey 2018 TWB 15th Anniversary #585)
Hot on its heels, we followed this up with another collaboration, this time with the wonderful Arran Distillery. Another beautiful sherry cask maturation, this Aran 12 years old 2009 vintage, cask #934 was selected exclusively for our 15th anniversary.
In August, we saw perhaps our most anticipated collaboration as we teamed up with the world renowned Samaroli independent bottlers to release a duo of TWB exclusives. A collaboration that was a first for any Scottish retailer. Working closely with the team at Samaroli, we helped in creating a pair of very unique and whimsical labels bringing together Italian flair, Scotch whisky and Barbados rum. Our Caol Ila 9 Year Old 2013 vintage with a label design as a nod to Islay's historic 'Lord of the Isles' . And from Barbados a single cask rum fit for a pirate, Foursquare 11 Year Old 2010 vintage.
As well as the exclusive bottlings we have also been delighted this year to bring on board some new suppliers such as The Colours of Rum and even more recently, another Italian bottle, Wilson & Morgan. And we were absolutely delighted to be able to develop a relationship with the Chernobyl Spirits Company to assist in distribution their incredible Ukrainian grown fruit distilled vodka, ATOMIK. With proceed being used to help communities recover from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and more recently to assist those impacted by the war affecting those across Ukraine.
Don't miss out on what's happening this year by ensuring you are signed up to our newsletter, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts and 'allow notifications' on our website.
Thank you and here is to 2022.
Slàinte Mhath
