Bimber The Spirit Of The Underground - London Bridge - 2021 Release - Single Cask 35

The tiny Bimber distillery was built in north-west London in 2015, with the first spirit coming off the company’s alembic stills the following year. After some early vodka distillation runs, the distillery switched to malt whisky production and the inaugural bottling of Bimber’s English single malt whisky followed in late 2019.

Bimber is a proudly independent distillery, sourcing barley but malting it themselves on their homemade malting floor, designing their own yeast strains and building much of their own equipment. Bimber’s wash is fermented for a full week in wooden washbacks before distillation in their direct-fired 1000-litre wash still and 600-litre spirit still. The company's Scottish distillery Dunphail opened in 2023. Co-founder Dariusz Plazewski stepped down in 2024 after being unmasked as Lucasz Ratajewski, a fugitive from attempted murder and drug charges in his native Poland.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.