Girvan 53 Year Old - That Boutique-y Whisky Company - Batch 3 - 2017 Release

The Girvan distillery was constructed in 1963 by William Grant & Sons, owners of Glenfiddich and Balvenie, and has been creating quality single grain whisky for the company’s blended whisky brands ever since. The move was necessary after Grant’s had broken a gentleman’s agreement with the rest of the industry not to advertise their whisky on television, imperilling their supply of grain whisky from rivals DCL.

The short-lived Ladyburn single malt distillery was built onsite at Girvan in 1965, but ceased production in 1975. In 2007 the Ailsa Bay single malt distillery was built at Girvan with considerably more success, and now produces around 12m litres of malt whisky per annum alongside Girvan’s output of 100 million litres of grain spirit. Girvan is also home to Grant’s Hendrick’s Gin, which has its own stillhouse within the complex.

That Boutique-y Whisky Company is an independent bottling subsidiary of Atom Group, the company that owns Master of Malt and Maverick Drinks. That Boutique-y Whisky Co.’s first bottlings appeared in 2012 and are easily recognisable by their small bottles and garish cartoon labels depicting oblique references to each distillery’s history and characteristics. The company does not reveal the whisky’s vintage on their labels, and only began using age statements in 2016.

That Boutique-y Whisky Company are prolific bottlers, with over 800 releases in their first decade. The company are also distinguished by the innovation of their offering, particularly in regard to world whiskies, and are often the first UK bottlers to release whiskies from new world distilleries. That Boutique-y Whisky Co.'s parent company Atom Group was purchased by Budweiser brewers AB-InBev in 2018; in 2024 the takeover was reversed when Atom bought themselves back.