Scotch whisky makers were among the most fervent industry advocates for staying in the European Union, but if Britain cannot get the new trade deal it wants with the EU, distillers would prefer a clean break.
The industry, already preparing for transport and logistic challenges, says if Britain ends up leaving the world's largest trading bloc altogether on March 29, 2019, that it could benefit.
Scotch exports were worth 4.36 billion pounds ($6.10 billion) in 2017, more than one fifth of all of Britain's food and drink exports and 40,000 jobs.
World Trade Organisation rules, to which trade would default in the absence of a new EU-UK agreement, mandate a zero percent tariff on imports of Scotch, like almost all spirits, and the EU is home to some of its biggest markets.
"If there was no deal, Scotch like all other exports would revert onto WTO rules, and in some ways that's not so bad for us," said Karen Betts, chief executive officer of the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA).
The SWA campaigned for remain in the referendum but after Britain delivered a leave vote, they now see possible benefits.
"If the UK does leave the EU there will certainly be advantages for us, in the UK's ability to negotiate free trade deals with countries around the world outside Europe that are important markets for us. So India for example, China, Brazil," Betts added.
Ewen Mackintosh, managing director at independent whisky maker Gordon & MacPhail in Moray, told Reuters that Scotch is a long-term business.
"We talk about generations, we are a family business in our fourth generation, so we've been through ups and downs. With Brexit, what we do today won't come to effect until 10 years time when we come to bottle it, so there will be challenges but also there will be opportunities."
The industry wants clarity about the terms under which Britain will leave the EU and how much time it has to get ready for it.
"All we ask for through the process is that we get a level playing field where we can continue to be competitive, continue to have access to the global markets, that the people who like our whisky, want to drink our whisky, still have the ability to get hold of it," Mackintosh said at the firm's Speyside distillery, which dates back to 1898.
The Scotch industry's supply chain is almost all UK-based and exports account for 90 percent of output, meaning it has seen big benefits from the post-Brexit weakness in the pound.
Most of the growth opportunities for Scotch whisky comes from outside the EU, in places like Latin America, Asia and the United States, which means the bilateral trade deals that Britain negotiates will be important.
Trade deals come down to economic muscle, however, and Britain's economy is roughly one tenth of the size of the EU's. Such deals are also notoriously slow to cement. Talks between India and the EU are stalled after a decade so far.
Despite referendums on independence and Brexit, investment has poured into Scottish distilleries over the past five years.
Ian Macleod Distillers bought Rosebank, a collector favourite whose spirit goes for up to 2,500 pounds a bottle, in October 2017. With a turnover of 65 million pounds in 2016, Macleod's has an 80-million-pound loan facility, backed by whisky stocks, to expand further.
Sales to Europe account for 15 percent of their turnover.
"Clearly that we want to have a good deal with Europe so that that is not unduly disrupted, but clearly from a total business point of view: we are not going to fall down in the event that we were not able to trade with Europe at all," said Financial Director, Mike Younger.
Like the rest of the industry he wants Britain to negotiate successful bilateral trade deals but is sceptical about whether they are achievable.
"I think one has to be practical in terms of are those deals going to be deliverable and are the other parties, other countries prepared to give them?," Younger said.
Whisky makers' general optimism may come partly from decades of working with a product that only gets better with age.
This confidence is echoed by SWA CEO Betts.
"I think the thing that gives all our companies confidence is that there is strong demand for Scotch all over the world and there has been for many hundreds of years," she said.