Cutty Sark - 1980s

Named after the famous tea clipper, the Cutty Sark blended Scotch whisky brand was created in 1923 by posh wine & spirits merchants Berry Bros & Rudd with an eye to the export market. Smuggled supplies of Cutty Sark (to which BBR turned a blind eye) proved an enormous hit with thirsty Americans during Prohibition, and the brand later became the first Scotch whisky to sell a million cases in the US market in the 1960s.

Berry Brothers sold Cutty Sark in 2010 to Edrington, whose forerunner Robertson & Baxter had distributed the brand since the 1930s and whose Glenrothes malt whisky had been the heart of Cutty Sark for many years. BBR bought the Glenrothes brand as part of the deal, but later sold it back to Edrington, who subsequently sold Cutty Sark to French multinational La Martiniquaise in 2018.

Founded in 1698, Berry Bros. & Rudd is the UK’s oldest wine and spirit merchant, with their iconic premises in St. James’ Street in London an institution in the drinks trade. Berry Brothers were among the first English merchants to bottle bespoke whiskies for sale in the 19th century and in 1923 they launched the Cutty Sark blended whisky which went on to great success in the United States in the post-Prohibition era.

Berry Bros continued to bottle single malt whiskies after WWII, with notable examples from Longmorn, Macallan, Glen Grant and Laphroaig (among others) occasionally cropping up at auction today. Since the late 1990s the company has expanded its spirits operations, briefly owned the rights to the Glenrothes single malt brand after selling Cutty Sark in 2010, and now have an adventurous range of expertly-selected single malts, blended malt whisky and rums.