James T - i am aware that different individual casks of single malt will have slightly different characteristics. i was wondering whether there are differences among the so called "independant bottlers." for example, if adelphi, cadenhead, signatory, and glenhaven were all allowed to draw scotch fom the same exact cask, would each of their products be (almost) identical? or would each bottlers product differ? would they simply draw from the cask and bottle it (thereby leading to no further aging), or would they (a bottler) further age the scotch (or store it in a way that led to a different product)? do all of the independant bottlers bottle "distillery aged" products, or do some have access directly from the still which would be aged according to the independants discretion? so i guess my question is: among the bottlers of cask strength single malts, are there differences, or variations, in the way that each stores and bottles their product? is there a perceived "leader" among the independants that puts out a better product? any input would be appreciated.