FAQs
We've put together answers to the questions we get asked most often. Don’t see the answer you’re looking for? Email us and we’ll get back to you as quickly as possible
Why did you set up The Heart Cut?
Having worked in the spirits industry for over a decade we have a deep-rooted passion and love for it, and we’ve been lucky enough to visit distilleries far and wide and try a whole load of delicious spirits in the process. The Heart Cut was born from this: our curiosity for discovering distilleries across the world and exploring the communities built up around them. It’s rooted in a desire to share the stories of these places and the people behind them so that you may be introduced to something new to put into your sipping and gifting repertoire.
How do you choose the distilleries you partner with?
We aim to introduce you to distilleries that we love, that have fascinating stories around their people, where they’re situated and their production process. And each one of these distilleries shares a mutual love and passion for what they do. You’ll also notice that these distilleries are scattered across the world, unlike others who may bottle and just partner with distilleries from a couple of countries.
Over the years we’ve built up a little black book of distilleries, and so many of our casks are picked on a personal love and fascination for that distillery alongside personal connections.
We’re excited for you to not only try the bottles we release but others from within that distillery’s range - hence why we’ll always talk about their other expressions that you can buy more regularly as well as our one off bottlings.
Why haven’t you done a bottle from x distillery?
If you have a favourite distillery you think we should bottle from we’re all ears! Email us at hello@theheartcut.com and we’ll see what we can do for future releases. Similarly, if you’re a distillery and you’re interested in collaborating then brilliant - please do get in touch!
How do you pick your casks?
Where geographically possible we’ll visit the distillery and try cask samples on-site; alternatively, cask samples will be sent to us and we’ll jump on a virtual tasting with the distillery team to try them. When tasting these samples the most important thing to us is ‘Do we like this? Is it tasty?’ and we also ask ourselves ‘Is it showcasing something different or unique? Is there a story behind it that we can tell?’. And when both the distillery and our team are happy with the outcome, we bottle it!
What is an ‘Independent Bottler’ and how is that different from a distillery bottling?
Within the spirits landscape there are two types of bottlings: original bottlings and independent bottlings. Original bottlings are those bottled by the distillery or parent company itself - made by them. Independent bottlings are cask(s) bought by an external company, bottled by them under their own name and often naming the distillery it came from. Independent bottlers can offer a diverse range of releases from various distilleries, showing a unique side to a distillery compared to its official releases.
What we’ve found is that for the most part, independent bottlers typically lead with their brand, they’re heavy on spirits jargon, and storytelling of the distillery from which the spirit actually came from is limited. That’s what sets us apart - every bottle The Heart Cut releases is a collaboration between us and the distillery, with storytelling at the heart.
I want to buy a bottle but it’s sold out. Why?
Every single cask or small batch release is limited - a cask is only so big! The beauty of this is that every expression we release is different so there’s always something new to try. If you liked a bottle but it’s sold out we’re happy to recommend something that tastes similar from us or from others - just get in touch!
How do I find out about your next releases?
Follow us on Instagram or sign up for our newsletter where we’ll drop teasers on when we’re bringing out a new single cask or small batch expression, and let you know when it’s available for order.
Where can I buy your bottles?
On our website! Occasionally our bottles can be found in some of our favourite bars and restaurants, but as we’re only a small business and each release is limited there’s not a lot of it to go around.