What does Fib mean?
At whisky festivals and tastings, people often ask us about the meaning of our name, Fib. Most assume it stands for Fife Independent Bottlers, but that wasn’t the original meaning at all! You may not believe us, but that acronym was a very happy accident. The true meaning of Fib Whisky is much more fun.
Our name and our brand is inspired by the Picts, the mysterious peoples who occupied the north and east of Scotland from the 3rd to 9th century AD. What is now named the Kingdom of Fife, where we mature and bottle our whiskies, was then named the Kingdom of Fib, after one of the seven sons of the semi-mythological Pictish King Cruithne.
Not much is recorded about the Picts, all they left behind was the gorgeous carvings you can see etched into standing stones and caves across Scotland. The most famous of these symbols is the mysterious Pictish Beastie that we have adopted as our mascot.
You can see the inspiration of these carvings, alongside the word-of-mouth legends of the Picts featured on our colourful whisky labels, designed and adapted by local artist
We chose this as the core of our brand, not just because we believe in honouring our local heritage, but also due to a more personal connection.
Aedan Burt, our close friend and late co-founder, lived in Fife all his life, starting out in Culross and later moving to St Andrews. His father, the late Jack Burt, co-wrote THE book on Pictish Carvings: A Pictish Panorama in 1995, and Aedan grew up entranced by the glorious artworks and tales of the Picts on many trips to the National Museum of Scotland.
The two of us owe our passion for whisky to Aedan, as he – unphased by his severe disability – took us on numerous whisky trips around Scotland’s many distilleries, where we both fell in love with the amber nectar.
The three of us dreamed of one day starting our own independent bottling company, and in late 2022 we realised that dream with Fib Whisky's first releases.
​
It was a horrible shock to lose Aedan suddenly in early 2023, just a few months later.
We feel very privileged that we can now carry on Aedan’s legacy through Fib Whisky, a passion-project through which we can remember and honour our friend.
