“The Ultimate Whisky Company” was founded in 1994 when Han and Maurice van Wees started selecting their finest casks of Single Malt for bottling.
Every Ultimate bottling starts with tasting cask samples in the warehouse as well as in our own office to make sure the quality is up to Ultimate standards. And then it all comes down to years of experience and recognizing a good malt with the potential of becoming a good bottling. “The Ultimate” whiskies are bottled without chill filtration, with the intention to keep all the original flavours inside. True to our philosophy, we want to offer the Ultimate whisky with the best quality possible for an affordable and honest price.
“An honest and old fashioned quality single cask, single malt” according to the Van Wees standards, as they have been set by Han and Maurice van Wees so many years ago.
Area /Name | Dist year | Age | % | Cask type | Cask no. |
From the Highlands: | |||||
Ardmore | 2010 | 11 | 46.0 | bourbon barrel | 800524 |
Aultmore | 2009 | 12 | 46.0 | bourbon barrel | 305637 |
Ballechin | 2011 | 10 | 46.0 | sherry butt | 270 |
Ben Nevis | 2013 | 7 | 60.6 | sherry butt | 435 |
Glen Grant | 2000 | 21 | 46.0 | refill butt | 1868 |
Glen Keith | 1991 | 30 | 47.7 | bourbon barrel | 73660 |
Glen Ord | 2012 | 9 | 46.0 | bourbon barrel | 800280 |
Glenlossie | 2008 | 12 | 46.0 | hogshead | 10524 |
Linkwood | 2010 | 11 | 46.0 | hogshead | 306246 |
Miltonduff | 2011 | 10 | 46.0 | refill sherry butt | 900341 |
Mortlach | 2009 | 12 | 46.0 | bourbon barrel | 301466 |
Pulteney | 2008 | 12 | 56.8 | sherry cask finish | 20 |
Royal Brackla | 2008 | 12 | 58.7 | sherry butt | 7 |
Teaninich | 2008 | 12 | 46.0 | hogshead | 715737 |
Unnamed Speyside | 2009 | 13 | 46.0 | hogshead | A195#4 |
From Islay: | |||||
Bunnahabhain | 2008 | 13 | 46.0 | sherry hogshead | 1164 |
Bunnahabhain Staoisha | 2013 | 7 | 46.0 | dechar/rechar | 900166 |
Caol Ila | 2011 | 9 | 46.0 | hogshead | 317213 |
From Orkney: | |||||
Whitlaw | 2014 | 7 | 46.0 | sherry butt | 426 |
Rare Reserve: | |||||
Mystery Speyside | 1966 | 46 | 43.3 | hogshead | 3337 |
A: I am Maurice van Wees, owner and director of The Ultimate Whisky Company, founded in 1994. I started working in the whisky business in 1987, following my father Han van Wees who was the first to import Scotch Single Malt in the 60s. Before this time the Van Wees company was trading tobacco and was founded in 1921.
A: Back in the sixties only Scotch Blended Whisky was imported in The Netherlands and when the MS Hornland was damaged on her way to Rotterdam, friends bought the whole contents of the ship and my father bought the consignment of whisky and champagne in the ship. It appeared this whisky was of much better quality than the normal imported product in NL and when he started selling he was contacted by many Scottish companies to buy back their stocks. The clientele for this whisky also started asking for Single Malts, so Han contacted the Scottish companies again and asked for Single Malt Whisky. By this time one of the few companies selling Single Malts were G&M and Cadenhead. The last made special bottlings of young Ardbeg and Laphroaig for Van Wees which were pure unique at that point and people were amazed by the peaty taste. Han even got Ardbeg Distillery to bottle 5 years old Ardbeg specially for The Netherlands.
A: When I started in the business the consumption of Blended Scotch was already going down in favour of the Single Malts. Of course the knowledge and palate of the consumer was not up to the level of today but the first whisky clubs were coming together. I remember we promoted Islay Malt and people thought the whisky had gone bad ! Festivals were still quite small and Single Malt had a dedicated following which grew by the day. Nowadays the number of clubs is uncountable and items of which we had hundreds of bottles in the past are sold on auction for unbelievable prices. The Dutch Single Malt consumer is very knowledgeable, so our efforts of educating them have succeeded !
A: By this time we had some very nice bottlings made for us by companies like Bowmore ( Single Islay Malt 5y. ) and Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky. The latter was owned by our good friend Andrew Symington who offered to bottle casks for us. Andrew had a small bottling line in Leith and was building up his company by working hard and selecting wonderful casks to bottle Single Cask. As you know he is now the very successful owner of Edradour Distillery, creating his own great whisky. Like Andrew we were only interested in great quality for a reasonable price, which is still the key to our mutual success in the business !
A: Through the years we have only been bottling whisky we like ourselves. The quality must be outstanding and the consumer must be 100% satisfied at a very reasonable price. We never spent money on advertising and The Ultimate became popular by word of mouth.
A: We select casks from our own stock bought straight from the distillers and the huge cask inventory of Signatory.
A: We look for the specific n&t of the distillery and for some bottlings the cask influence must not be overpowering. For example , we have bottled many casks of Rosebank from straight bourbon barrels, the vanilla only complemented the Rosebank character. Others like our Longmorn bottlings from oloroso sherry butt stood out for their complexity and dark sherry influences.
A: We nearly always agree on what cask to bottle at a certain time and these days the 4th generation decides too, since my daughter Julie and son Joël have joined the business
A: Chill filtration takes away a lot of taste. This is something that defines a whisky and you can never put it back, so our whiskies are bottled at room temperature and slightly filtered.
A: We have bottled over a thousand casks now and all of them are my babies. Bottled for enjoying life and bringing pleasure to people all over the globe.
A: The Rare's are bottlings which are often hard to find at a higher price level. Distilleries close and leave a heritage behind which we try to bottle under this Rare label. You could call them drinkable collectables...
A: The consumer is very knowledgeable these days and easily bored. Since we are consumers too we know how to appeal to the palate of the connoisseur. Moreover we always listen to our Ultimate drinkers and try to bring whiskies to the market to their needs and interests.
A: I believe every distillery can make great whisky as long as it is matured in a good cask. Too many bottlers rely on a distillery name to raise interest but we believe only a good cask can bring you good single malt which in it’s turn will make people notice it. Lately I was personally amazed again by the taste of one of our Glen Spey bottlings. Around the same time I was offered a cask of Ardbeg which I declined because the spirit was not good enough. So it differs every time but bottom line is that an independent bottling should bring you that bit extra.
A: We started The Ultimate to make the difference in the market. It should bring you a great single malt for a great price, with all the particulars of the cask in which it has been matured, nothing less ! every time different, every time exciting...