Black Bottle was established by the three sons of the Aberdeen shoemaker, James Graham. In 1850, the three brothers opened an office on Market Street in Aberdeen. The trio had started out in the tea trade; Aberdeen is a port and was a hub for tea importation from China and Ceylon. The Grahams also developed quite an aptitude for whisky blending and created a rather powerful blend, namely Black Bottle blended Scotch Whisky which was first launched in 1879. Tea was still their staple business until 1881 when they moved to Regent Street and concentrated their efforts solely on whisky blending.
The blended whisky was originally named for the black bottle in which the whisky was sold, this changed in 1914 with the onset of the First World War; for the previous bottle was German-made and had to be replaced, thus a green bottle was used for some time. David Graham died in 1919 and the business was left to the youngest brother, Charles Innes Graham. He took to driving around the country in his car, an itinerant vendor, hawking his flavoursome and peaty wares.
In 1926, Charles Innes died and he left in his wake a profitable business of which his wife Ann Jane Graham assumed control. By the mid 20th century, the Black Bottle brand was becoming highly lucrative. Today the bottle is black once more and it is a blend made up of a proportion of malt whisky from every distillery on Islay.
€32Original price was: €32.€22Current price is: €22.
Tasting Notes
Colour: Bright gold. This is an inference based on product imagery and style rather than a formally published colour note.
Nose: Ripe juicy pear, peat smoke, oak, honey, vanilla, and apples. This combines the official Black Bottle profile with retailer tasting notes.
Palate: Green apple, biscuity caramel, fruity peat, gentle spice, and rich oaky notes, with a balance between smoke and orchard-fruit sweetness. The balance wording is an inference based on the official and retailer tasting notes.
Finish: Charred embers, deep dark smoke, sprays of sea-salt, and lingering warmth.
€20.50Original price was: €20.50.€15Current price is: €15.
Tasting Notes
Colour: Deep gold. This is an inference based on product imagery and style rather than a formally published colour note.
Nose: Fresh florals, oak, spice, and smoke, with hints of sea salt, honey, and a lightly savoury bacon-like edge. This combines the official Black Bottle notes with retailer tasting descriptors.
Palate: Silky and mellow, with dry wood smoke, balanced peat, sweet oak, heather honey, and charred toffee.
Finish: Soft and elegantly spicy, with blackened bonfire notes, pepper, nutmeg, and a gentle lingering smokiness.
Colour: Warm amber. This is an inference based on retailer imagery and one retailer’s visual description rather than a formally published official colour note.
Nose: Dried nuts, rich fruit, maple syrup, and oak, with vanilla, figs, fudge, carrot cake, and a wisp of smoke. This note combines the official Black Bottle flavour description with retailer tasting notes.
Palate: Layers of vanilla, toasted coconut, caramel-coated nuts, raisins, cherries, nutmeg, cinnamon, honey, and smoked toffee.
Finish: Sweet and softly smoky, with delicate smoke drifting through nutty chocolate and lingering spice.
€23.95Original price was: €23.95.€16.95Current price is: €16.95.
Tasting Notes
Colour: Deep amber with ruby-gold hints. This is an inference based on the sherry-and-wine-cask style and product imagery rather than a formally published colour note.
Nose: Dried fruit, walnuts, raisins, wood, and orange, with extra touches of blackcurrant, damson, and coffee cake from retailer tasting notes.
Palate: Sweet Spanish sherry cask flavours lead into berries, cherry, raspberry, vanilla cream, and soft warming spice.
Finish: Long and dry, with grapes, overflowing red wine, flamed toffee, toasted brown sugar, and a light smoky tail.
€23.95Original price was: €23.95.€17.95Current price is: €17.95.
Tasting Notes
Colour: Golden vanilla. This wording follows retailer presentation rather than an official current producer colour note.
Nose: Surging spices, island peat, maritime medicinal notes, toasted cedar, earthy smoke, sweet toffee, and a touch of cinnamon.
Palate: A union of earth and ocean, with black pepper and sea salt colliding with sweet cereal, vanilla, cardamom, oatcakes, seaweed, and salted caramel.
Finish: Long and warming, with waves of oak spice, smoke, and lingering dry sea salt.
Colour: Deep gold to amber. This is an inference based on product imagery and the charred-oak style rather than a formally published colour note.
Nose: Initial notes of salt and seaweed reminiscent of sea air, with dark smoke, crisp spice, coastal peat, smoked herbs, and touches of toasted barley and salted caramel.
Palate: Intense toasted spices, powerful peat, charred oak, golden barley, hints of vanilla cream, honeyed barley, toffee, and a lingering coastal sea-spray note.
Finish: Long and smoky, with salted caramel, deep smoke, and a persistent peaty warmth.
