This is one of the most recognisable of the Italian imported bottles, the ‘Penny Black’. It was bottled by Brae Dean for Moon Import and whilst most Moon Import releases were bottled as part of a specific series, this was a standalone produced to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Scotch malt whisky in 1989. The label depicts an old ‘Penny Black’ stamp featuring Queen Victoria. It was distilled in 1968, bottled in 1989 and is one of 3216 bottles.
This bottle was bottled by Brae Dean for Moon Import. It is a 1983 vintage (bottled in 1995) Bruichladdich from Moon Import’s De Viribus Illustribus series. It is one of 1,050 bottles.
This 17 year old was bottled by R.W. Duthie & Co for Georgio d’Ambrosio.
R.W. Duthie & Co of Aberdeen are a subsidiary company of Wm. Cadenhead, and handled the majority of the physical bottling operations for the company. There are 3 bottles that I am aware of in this series; this 17 year old as well as a 16 year old (shown below as bottle no. 4) and an 18 year old.
As with the map series of bottles (16 & 17 year old pictured above), Giorgio d’Ambrosio produced 3 other bottles with a plainer style of label as 16, 17 & 18 year old offerings. These were also bottled by R.W. Duthie & Co. At the moment, only the 18 year old is shown in the collection below (frustratingly outbid on more than one occasion for the others !).
Whiskybase state that this 18 year old was distilled in February 1966 and bottled in October 1984 although this is not stated on the label.
Gordon & MacPhail’s created their Original ‘Cask’ series, which introduced their cask strength bottling’s as per the market trend at that time, in the late 1980’s. I presume that these were issued to other markets outside Italy although the 2 shown here (bottle no.s 6 & 7), on the reverse have an Italian import sticker stating that they were imported by Meregalli Giuseppe.
I am aware that there is at least one other bottle of the same label style in the series (1965 – ABV 53.5%).
This is a Nadi Fiori bottling. Fiori was the owner of the Taverna degli Artisti bar in Italy and in the 1980’s established an import company ( alongside the Turatello brothers who were beer distributors ) called Intertrade. Their bottles are some of the most sought after older Bruichladdich on the market. The Intertrade name disappeared around 1989, however Fiori continued to import bottles under the Turatello Imports name, as can be seen on the base of the label. He would later go on to found his own company, called High Spirits.
This whisky was distilled on 13th of December 1965 and aged for 24 years before being bottled on the 27th of March 1990 at natural cask strength. Only one bottle is in the collection at the current time and I am aware that 15, 16, 21 & 23 year old bottles require adding !
