Meet the Startup That Will Revolutionize Private Whisky Bottling

Tailored Spirits Co has been recognised for its work helping individuals bottle whisky casks. The innovative new business was co-founded by Tom Costello, Adam Harding and Carl Johnstone. The trio aim to help customers “discover the true value of rare cask spirits” and their company was recently recognised with one of Scotland’s most prestigious awards for new businesses: Scottish Edge.

According to the Scotch Whisky Association, 1.35 billion bottles of Scotch whisky are exported each year. So one might wonder why a new company is being rewarded for a job that has already been done in spades. The answer lies in the strange duality of the whisky cask market.

Cask ownership legislation means that individuals typically own one, and sometimes up to five, casks of whisky. If they want to bottle their own whisky, they often feel lost when dealing with companies that are more willing to bottle hundreds of casks at a time. The Scottish Edge Award received by Tailored Spirits Co. recognises the work that Costello and Harding have done to make bottling accessible.

Who is Tailored Spirits Co.?

“Let’s say you have a cask of whisky and you want to bottle it,” Tom Costello, co-founder and creative director of Tailored Spirits Co., told me when I met him at the Port Of Leith Distillery in Edinburgh. “Maybe you want to commemorate a personal event with something very special and bespoke, perhaps a daughter’s wedding or a son’s 21st birthday? Or you’re a small business and want to create something truly bespoke for a corporate gift, to celebrate a company anniversary or even to launch a new brand. Where do you start? Most bottling companies simply don’t have the time or inclination to get into bottling single casks. That’s where we come in.”

It is a difficult task to summarize the complexities of bottling spirits into something concise. And An individual can relate. As a barrel broker, I am often asked about bottling spirits. The answer is always, “Yes, of course you can, but…!” The “but” is the long part, because there are all sorts of costs and considerations that the average individual doesn’t know they need to factor in. Costello’s plan at Tailored Spirits is to turn that “but” into a simple “and here’s how.”

An emerging sector

Private cask ownership represents only a fraction of the whisky industry. That means that for the big players, and even for small independent bottlers trying to operate on tight margins in an increasingly difficult sector, bottling a cask every now and then just isn’t worth it. Sometimes it’s not even that they don’t want to, but that they can’t. Some large facilities have machines that run more than one cask of whisky through the pipes of their bottling equipment, making it impossible to produce individual casks.

While the number of private casks may not be a huge number in the inventory of a company like Diageo or other major spirits producers, it is a growing sector. Doing some conservative math around the publicly available figures for private casks under management, we get values ​​in the millions for a single cask investment company. This does not take into account the individuals and companies who do not currently own a cask but would still like to bottle something of their own.

The end point of all whisky casks has to be a bottle at some point. This is great if you are an independent bottler, but if you have never bottled spirits before and have no intention of doing so again, it is important to have the advice of someone with experience. Tailored Spirits Co. has jumped into this niche and is already excelling.

What are they doing?

“There’s often been a disconnect between all the moving parts of a whisky bottling project,” Costello explains as we discuss the creation of Tailored Spirits. “You can find a cask broker, but the service stops at the purchase of the cask. You can find a designer to produce an idea, but not necessarily understand the viability of manufacturing. You can find a bottling house and they’ll do the bottling, but they won’t be able to source a variety of bottle shapes, packaging or designs and will usually expect you to manage the logistics of getting it all to them and making sure it all comes together. And finally, if you’ve been lucky enough to navigate all of that, you’re left with a pallet of bottles and probably very little way of shipping them around the world or finding buyers for them.”

“That’s where Tailored Spirits Co. comes in: a white-gloved, end-to-end partner to get your whisky from the warehouse to your home,” Tom concludes. It’s a compelling argument and listening to him, I think the choice that’s right for you depends on you and your project. In the same way that some couples may choose to plan their own wedding, many hire a wedding planner to manage all the parts and ensure their unique event is absolutely perfect.

How does this help the industry?

It’s pretty clear to me how this setup will help consumers, but changes in the industry over the last 30 years have created problems on both sides of private keg sales.

In the past, many distilleries sold casks to individuals, either directly to the public or through brokers. While this method may have worked for them 10, 20, or even 30 years ago, it is not always the case today. So when these customers come back and ask to bottle a few bottles from a single cask, it disrupts the warehouse/distillery. Often, the consumer ends up with a negative experience because the method simply does not suit their needs.

Warehouses and distilleries have two choices, one of which is to stop dealing with private cask owners. As a cask broker, I have seen big changes in distillery-run warehouses over the last few years. Springbank used to do partial bottle runs for their customers, now it’s the whole cask or nothing. In 2023, Macallan informed the majority of its historic private cask owners that they had 90 days to move their casks to another warehouse. Bruichladdich has also updated its storage policy for private casks.

The other option for distilleries is to partner with a company like Tailored Spirits Co. to make the process easier for everyone.

“We help distilleries by supporting their private cask programs,” Costello said when I asked how they hope to help the industry as a whole. “Not all distilleries are set up to handle their own bottling in-house. If they are, a single 250-bottle run is usually not the best use of their resources. We’re here to support the eventual bottling of their private cask owners and take those projects off their hands so they can focus on producing more quality spirits.”

The Future of Private Cask Bottling

It’s clear that the team behind Tailored Spirits are equally passionate about what they do. They’ve created some truly inspiring bottles, but even their more ‘budget’ models have a high-end, polished feel.

“Fore! has definitely been one of my favorite projects to date,” Tom said when I asked him about the highlights. “The ability to bring so many elements together to create a truly special experience for the customer is something I’m personally very proud of.”

It’s an exciting new space, and with everything Costello and the Tailored Spirits team have planned, I can’t wait to see what they announce next. For now, their services fill a significant gap in the industry by helping consumers make informed, cost-effective decisions when they get to the point of wanting to sell a keg. Anything that makes the private keg ownership sector more transparent and consumer-friendly is welcome, in my opinion.