Imagine you have the opportunity to follow your dream. You have a fair bit of experience, but the learning curve will be steep. There’s a real risk of failure, but you’ve noticed the tide rising. You could rise with it. People seem interested, but you’ll need to take a big risk. There will be little financial security. Your house might have to be sold or put up as collateral, and your investments cashed in. As for loans, you’ll need a few. What would you be willing to wager on yourself?

Whisky’s story is inexorably linked to entrepreneurs who risked everything to follow a dream of independence. For some, the risk was lower and diversified. Grocers like James Chivas and George Ballantine struck out on their own after years of running similar businesses. The Gloags, of Famous Grouse fame, leveraged links to the local gentry to support taking on a shop. William Teacher married into a grocer family and helped them diversify into spirits.

Then, as is the case today, the barrier to entry for independent bottling, brokering, blending, and ‘bonding’ was fairly low. A few casks can be bought, perhaps ‘cleaned up’ a bit with a little extra ageing, a rerack, or vatting, and supplied to pubs, merchants, or direct to the end consumer.

Revenue from that stock’s sale funds the purchase of new casks, and slowly but surely, a business can be built. It’s a model that looked largely the same in the 20th century as in the 19th, and it remains little changed today. The risk is lower, but margins can be slim.

Nevertheless, history has proven time and time again that these intrepid start-ups have laid the foundations for each of the Scotch industry’s growth spurts: initially by creating the first named brands in the 19th century, and later by spearheading the appreciation of single malt at home and abroad in the 1960s and ’70s, and again from the late 1980s through the ’90s and early 2000s.

It’s hard to imagine that single malt Scotch whisky would have the reputation it does today without Gordon & MacPhail, Cadenhead’s, Samaroli, the Laings, Signatory, Adelphi, and their peers.   

Of course, becoming a distiller is far riskier, and remaining a distiller harder still. More distillery founders and owners than can be listed here have been forced out or financially ruined through bad investment, fire, strategic misstep, hostile takeover, dodgy finances, or industry collapse. James Allardice of Glendronach went bankrupt. John Duff lost control of Longmorn and Benriach. Campbeltown’s history is writ large with similar sad tales, and the history of Irish whiskey is much the same.

In context, this makes the multi-generational family legacies of J&A Mitchell (Springbank), the Morrisons (Formerly Bowmore, Auchentoshan, Glen Garioch, now Clydeside, Aberargie), the Grants of Glenfarclas, and William Grant (Glenfiddich, Balvenie, etc.) all the more impressive. Yet, whether ultimately a success or a failure, where would we whisky lovers be without the brave souls who risked everything to fire up their stills?

This is all to say that the success of any whisky business is no sure thing, and that the independent whisky makers of our age do a lot of the category’s reputational heavy lifting while shouldering a disproportionate amount of the risk. It’s a fact that came to mind while attending the wonderful 20th anniversary celebrations of Kilchoman Distillery on Islay this September.

Founder Anthony Wills reminded me that the independents have real skin in the game, and yet still often choose to prioritise quality and labour-intensive methods over profit: one sip of Ardnahoe, Ardnamurchan, Arran, Benromach, Daftmill, InchDairnie, Kilchoman, Kilkerran, Lochlea, or Springbank — and many more besides — will prove that to you. A quality-first strategy takes true grit, and we must never take it for granted.

This makes it all the more important that we support independent distillers during these tough economic times. The reality is, the multinationals are still raking in huge profits, with their whiskies just a line on the balance sheet. For the independents, whisky is everything: their business, their passion, their life.

Your budget might be smaller this year, and if so, you’re not alone. But more than ever, you must vote with your wallet. See every bottle as an investment: in your own enjoyment, yes, but also in the future of the distilleries you love the most.