The Alistair Walker Whisky Company, based in Grangemouth, Central Scotland, was established in 2018. With almost 20 years’ experience in the Scotch whisky industry, Alistair Walker took the plunge and decided to forge his own path – as an independent bottler.

Independent bottlers, aka merchant bottlers, have been around for a long time. Quite simply, they source whiskies from different distilleries throughout Scotland (and beyond), and, when they are ready, they bottle them as single casks, in their most natural form – un-chill filtered, at natural colour, and usually at cask strength.

Alistair Walker Whisky Co. is not affiliated to any specific distillery and able to source casks from various distilleries, thereby offering a diverse portfolio of whisky bottlings that cover the myriad flavours, aromas and styles that whisky has to offer.

The whiskies are bottled under the brand name ‘Infrequent Flyers’. That name refers to the nature of many of the casks that are bottled – often whiskies from lesser-known distilleries that are of excellent quality, but have never been widely or consistently available. As such, many of the bottlings are of whiskies that you just don’t see so often – hence the name ‘Infrequent Flyers’.

ALISTAIR WALKER

Alistair’s career in the whisky industry began in January 1997, at Burn Stewart Distillers in a sales and marketing role for over six years. At that time Burn Stewart was the custodian of two single malt distilleries – Deanston and Tobermory.

In October 2004, he joined The BenRiach Distillery Company, and remained with them for over twelve years, until the business was eventually sold. This was a new-start business, that had been set up in 2004 following the acquisition, by three entrepreneurs, of the BenRiach Distillery from Pernod Ricard. In addition to BenRiach, Alistair also had the good fortune to work with the GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh Distilleries, with BenRiach having acquired GlenDronach in 2008, and then Glenglassaugh in 2013.

In 2018, Alistair found himself on hiatus, and contemplating what to do next. Keen to be his own boss and also wishing to remain in the whisky sector, he decided to venture into the exciting world of independent bottling. Making the move from distillery to independent bottler is very much a case of ‘gamekeeper turned poacher’.

Fortunately, independent bottling is a vibrant category at present; as more and more whisky enthusiasts are seeking out single cask bottlings and whisky releases that are a little different, somewhat unique, and often from less familiar distilleries.

Infrequent Flyers Inchgower 2008 - 15 Years Old - Sherry Cask