The startup that’s revolutionizing private whiskey bottling

Tailored Spirits has been recognised for its work to support individuals in the process of whisky casking. The innovative new company was co-founded by Tom Costello, Adam Harding and Carl Johnston, who aim to help customers “unlock the true value of rare cask-aged spirits” and their business was recently awarded the Scottish Edge, one of Scotland’s most prestigious new business awards.

According to the Scotch Whisky Association, 1.35 billion bottles of Scotch whisky are exported each year. You might wonder why a new company would win an award when something is already thriving. The answer lies in the strange duality of the whisky cask market.

Due to cask ownership laws, individuals are typically limited to owning just one cask of whisky, but sometimes up to five. People who want to bottle their own whisky often find themselves lost in the middle dealing with companies that can bottle hundreds of casks at a time. Tailored Spirits’ Scottish Edge award recognises the work Costello and Harding have done to make bottling more accessible.

Who is Tailored Spirits Co.?

“Let’s say you have a cask of whiskey and you want to bottle it,” Tom Costello, co-founder and creative director of Tailored Spirits, explained to me at Edinburgh’s Port of Leith distillery. “Maybe you want to commemorate a personal event with a special bespoke item, like your daughter’s wedding or your son’s 21st birthday. Or maybe you’re a small business and want to create something truly bespoke for a corporate gift, celebrate a company anniversary, or launch a new brand. Where do you start? Most bottling companies don’t have the time or appetite to consider single cask bottling. That’s where we come in.”

Summarizing the complexities of bottling spirits in a concise way is a difficult task. and There are very few explanations that an individual can understand. As a barrel broker myself, I get asked a lot about bottling spirits. The answer is always, “Yes, of course you can, but…!” The “but” is long because there are a variety of costs and considerations that the average person doesn’t know they have to think about. Costello’s plan with Tailored Spirits is to turn that “but” into an easy-to-understand “and here’s how.”

Emerging Sectors

Independently owned barrels are just one part of the larger whiskey industry, which means that for the larger companies, and even for the smaller independent bottlers trying to operate on tight margins in an increasingly tough industry, bottling just a few barrels isn’t worth the effort. Sometimes they won’t, or can’t, bottle at all; the machinery in some of the larger facilities uses more than a barrel’s worth of whiskey just through the bottling equipment’s plumbing, making barrel-by-barrel work impossible.

While the number of privately owned barrels may not be significant when viewed in the overall inventory of Diageo and other major spirits producers, it is a growing sector. Applying some conservative figures based on publicly available figures for privately owned barrels under management, we arrive at a multi-million dollar value for one barrel investment company alone. This figure does not include individuals or companies that do not currently own barrels, but would still like to bottle something unique of their own.

Those barrels of whiskey will eventually need to be bottled. That’s fine if you’re an independent bottler, but if you’ve never bottled spirits before and don’t plan to ever do so, it’s important to get guidance from someone with experience. Tailored Spirits Co. has carved out that niche, and it’s already proven successful.

What do they do?

“With a whiskey bottling project, all the work going on is often siloed,” says Costello, talking about the birth of Tailored Spirits. “You find a barrel broker, but their services end with buying the barrels. You find a designer to come up with ideas, but they don’t necessarily understand the feasibility of production. You find a bottling hall, and the bottling takes place there, but you don’t have access to the various bottle shapes, packaging and designs, and you’re usually asked to handle the logistics of getting it all to them and making sure it all fits together. And finally, if you’re lucky enough to make it through all of this, you’re left with a pallet of bottles with little way to ship them around the world or find a buyer.

“This is where Tailored Spirits comes in – a complete end-to-end white glove partner delivering your whiskey from warehouse to home,” Tom concludes. It’s a compelling sales pitch. After hearing what he has to say, we think it’s up to you and your project to decide if this is the right choice for you. Just like how some couples choose to plan their own weddings, many choose to hire a wedding planner to manage every bit of it, ensuring that this once-in-a-lifetime event goes off perfectly.

How will it help the industry?

It’s clear to me how this system would benefit consumers, but changes in the industry over the past 30 years have created problems for both sides of private cask sales.

In the past, many distilleries sold casks to the public, either directly or through brokers. That arrangement may have worked 10, 20 or even 30 years ago, but not necessarily today. This creates chaos in the warehouse/distillery when these customers ask to bottle several bottles from one cask. This arrangement is not fit for purpose and often results in a negative consumer experience.

Warehouses and distilleries are left with two options, one of which is to stop dealing with private cask owners. As a cask broker myself, I have seen significant changes in distillery-run warehouses over the last few years. Springbank once processed a portion of bottles for customers, but now they either process whole casks or nothing. In 2023, Macallan notified the majority of people who historically owned private casks that they have 90 days to move their casks to another warehouse. Bruichladdich has also updated its storage policy for privately owned casks.

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

“We help by supporting distilleries’ private cask programs,” Costello replied when asked how they want to help the industry as a whole. “Not every distillery is set up to do their own bottling, and if they are, bottling 250 bottles at a time is generally not the best use of resources. We’re here to support private cask owners with their final bottling, and take the project off their shoulders so they can focus on making great spirits.”

The Future of Private Cask Bottling

It’s clear that the team at Tailored Spirits are passionate about what they do too – they’ve created some truly inspiring bottles, but even their more “cost-effective” designs have a premium, sophisticated look.

“Fore! was definitely my favorite project to date,” Tom replied when asked about a highlight. “It was really something I’m personally proud of, being able to bring so many elements together to create a really special experience for my client.”

This is an exciting new space, and with all that Costello and the team at Tailored Spirits have already prepared, I can’t wait to see what they unveil next. For now, their service fills an important gap in the industry by helping consumers make educated, cost-conscious decisions when they want to sell a keg. In my opinion, anything that makes the private keg ownership space more transparent and consumer-friendly is welcome.