There are certain differences between the independent bottlers: Cadenhead's and Gordon&MacPhail usually buy young stock, which then is matured not at the "usual" maturing place of the whisky (this being distillery, bonded warehouse, or bottling plant), but at a warehouse and under conditions of the bottlers discretion. Others, such as the Hart Brothers may purchase whisky, but leave it to mature for another one or two years at it's original place. Many others, such as Blackadder, purchase the casks just before they bottle. It is quite common, however, to reserve casks for some time (weeks/months), or to purchase one after another, let them sleep for awhile, and bottle them all at once at a convenient date, when the bottler gets a bottling space (slot) from his bottling plant. Would all of the bottlers get the same cask, the differences would be mainly in the techniques used for bottling: Gordon&MacPhail would have caramel added, the result thus being darker. Hart Brothers and Vintage Malt Co. would be bottled at 43%. Adelphi would be bottled at cask strength, as would be Glenhaven. Cadenhead's could be bottled at 46%. Blackadder might bottle at cask strength or 43%. If it is very young, it might be bottled at 40% by Signatory Vintage. Any plain, unfiltered, uncoloured whisky at cask strength should be very similar if from the same cask, regardless of bottler. Casks which are purchased are not usually transported to other warehouses, but remain at their original storage (just under a new ownership) until they are bottled. Partial bottlings are very very uncommon, to bottle part of the cask as miniatures is done by some, though (Blackadder / Signatory), but is quite expensive. The main differences between the bottlers are in the selections they do due to personal taste or company philosophy, and the resources they have access to. Vintage Malt Co., for example, bottles only bourbon casked whiskies as Cooper's Choice, as it is their opinion that all the heavy sherry wood only masks the true nature of the whisky. Hart Brothers have acces to certain older stocks other bottlers have not. They also prefer older, more mature whiskies, with fruity and dry to sweet notes, not to much peat, and dislike cask strengths. When they bottle something younger, it ought to be something quite special, tastewise. Blackadder e.g. sometimes purchases stock from Burn Steward, and John Lamond, who does their whisky selection, has it's own mind concerning the whiskies he likes, as does Charles Maclean who cooperates with Adelphi. Master of Malt apparently gets (second-rate?) stock from Signatory. Murray McDavid might get stock out of his former ties to Springbank and Cadenheads. Therefore, the differences between the bottlers are in the techniques preferred, but mainly in the individual casks selected and bottled. A Port Ellen from Hart Brothers might thus be VERY different from a Port Ellen by Masters of Malt, simply because a very different cask has been selected for purchase and bottling. Individual casks may produce as many different whiskies (even from the same distillation run) as there are casks (just think of the myriad variations possible with re-coopered casks, made from wood in which many different products have been stored for varying legths of time). But this exactly is what makes up the beauty, the individuality, the authenticity - the CHARACTER - of the whisky. Sometimes those differences may be subtle, but usually they are expressed. This is what frightens the industry with their averaged-out products - that most individually selected casks are much better and much different from the mixed-together average they offer to the consumer.