The Whisky Connoisseur was an independent bottler of top class single malt whiskies. The Whisky Connoisseur started out as a subsidiary business of Scotland Direct, a company founded in 1973 by Arthur J. A. Bell and his wife Susan to retail Scottish goods by mail order.

The Whisky Connoisseur came to prominence in the 1980s after a widely-publicised court case brought in 1986 by Guinness, who had just bought the unrelated but much more prominent Arthur Bell & Sons whisky company, owners of the Bell’s Scotch whisky brand. Despite being the David to Guinness’s Goliath, Arthur J.A. Bell won the case and was allowed to continue to use his own name and signature on The Whisky Connoisseur’s bottlings.

Soon afterwards in the early 1990s, The Whisky Connoisseur began releasing a string of superb single cask and small batch single malt whiskies. Many of these were ‘mystery’ single malts bottled without naming their distilleries of origin on the label, instead being identified under proprietary pseudonyms. 

Some of these mystery bottlings, in particular the extraordinary Bowmores bottled as Largiemeanoch and the stunning Balmenach released as Miltonhaugh, have gone on to earn legendary status among whisky fans. A tentative list of Whisky Connoisseur’s distillery pseudonyms using information culled from online sources is included below. 

Please note that, in the absence of direct confirmation from the parties involved, a list of this kind can only ever be speculative and is thus included here as a representative guide only, on the understanding that it is incomplete, may not be 100% accurate, and is neither authoritative nor definitive.

Aberlogie - Macallan
Auchenhame - Tamdhu
Auchenlone - Glenburgie
Auchindoun - Mortlach
Balcarron - Dailuaine
Barstruie - Balblair
Beinaigen - Glenburgie
Braemoray - Glenrothes
Brodgar - Highland Park
Caskieben - Glen Garioch
Cawdordew - Royal Brackla
Corryhabbie - Balvenie
Corshelloch - Dufftown
Craigardle - Blair Athol
Cromdale - Benrinnes
Cullicudden - Dalmore
Drumbowie - Craigellachie
Dunnottar - Glenury Royal
Glen Quaich - Aberfeldy
Largiemeanoch - Bowmore
Lossieburn - Glenlossie
Miltonhaugh - Balmenach
Millbuie - Still Undisclosed
Myrmhor - Tormore
Ochterglen - Glenturret
Pluscarden - Miltonduff
Rhinnesdhu - Glenfarclas
Rinntalloch - Still Undisclosed
Rosscanich - Teaninich
Skerridhu - Scapa
Slochmor - Tomatin
Spyniemor - Linkwood
Strathblair - Glenfiddich
Taranty - Glencadam
Tarracroy - Aultmore
Tullichmhor - Glenlivet
Whalligoe - Old Pulteney

The Whisky Connoisseur released over 250 bottlings over the course of the 1990s and 2000s, with the final bottlings coming around the end of 2011. In no small part due to the relative anonymity conferred by the pseudonyms, recognition was slow in coming for some of these whiskies, the vast majority of which were bottled before widespread internet adoption, and to this day a great many of these superb casks are still relatively unknown and often offer fantastic value on the secondary market.