Bladnoch 1965 (Bottled 1988)"The Costumes" Moon Import / 46% / 0.7l

Founded in 1980 in Genoa by Pepi Mongiardino, Moon Import quickly made a name for itself as an importer and distributor of high-end wines and spirits; its “Half Moon” series debuted two years later.

At the urging of the legendary Silvano Samaroli († 2017), Mongiardino focused on bottling single barrels of whisky, usually from private owners. In time, it became the official distributor of Bruichladdich, Tamnavulin and Tullibardine. In addition to the quality of the spirits themselves, the Moon Import editions are characterized by their unique presentation. The most famous series – “The Animals, Birds, or The Costumes” – are labeled with Mongiardino’s design, inspired by old engravings from an 18th-century German encyclopedia. The Bladnoch presented here, distilled 1965, spent over two decades in a hogshead cask no. 3803 and was bottled at 46% abv in the “The Costumes” series in 1988. The edition consisted of 240 bottles.

Unfortunately, we were not able to taste this whisky, so we do not know how similar it is to the current editions of Bladnoch. In a sense, it is a historical edition – the whisky was distilled in 1965, shortly after the distillery was taken over by McGown & Cameron Ltd, a producer of blended whisky based in Glasgow. At that time, Bladnoch distilled in one pair of stills, with another installed a year later, and produced a distillate with a fruity and grassy character.