RIP: Black Bottle Blended Scotch Whisky

What is feckin whiskey doing on the net's leading independent rum website? There's a reason, read on, but it's not my fault! Honest...
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Capn Jimbo
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RIP: Black Bottle Blended Scotch Whisky

Post by Capn Jimbo »

Black Bottle: the poster boy for the mega's rape of the spirits market


Note: corrections in red, thanks to the U-man (details below).


Fack them all. Bend them over, you all get in line and let's have at them. I know I am far from not alone in once loving the amazing Black Bottle. Why?

Read my old bottle's label:
"This rich golden blend contains malts from each of the distilleries on Scotland's most revered whisky producing island, Islay."
As I recall, that meant a blend of seven fine Islay malts (along with a bit of grain whisky)! What a treat it was! Not so long ago though I'd purchased Jim Murray's 2014 Whisky Bible wherein he claimed that Black Bottle - sadly - was now a "mere shadow of it's former self". Later I read that under the kind and gentle guidance of their new owner, our good friends at Diageo, that Black Bottle not only had a new modern black glass bottle, but was now a new blend.

Horrified I rushed to my favorite Indian rum family outlet to find - thank the godz! - a close-out of the old classic green bottle at a mere $14.95. I immediately grabbed two of them. Lucky me! Or so I thought.

Not so fast idiot. Later I looked at the string of fine print numbers that I assumed indicated batch size and year but couldn't interpret them. I was about to try some Duck Duck Go research when decided to read the back label. Again to my horror, I read...
"This blended Scotch marries Islay malts with Highland, Speyside and Lowland malt and grain whiskies.


Good facking grief!! Does one doubt for a micro-second that this completely prostituted product is anything remotely like the many years old original Black Bottle?

Not a bit. I could not be more angered at this blatant and devious alteration. It reminded me of the time Richard Seale commented about a certain liqueur, er rum when he said to the effect "...there's probably a teaspoon of real 23 year old rum in that bottle". Substitute "Islay" for "23 year old rum", and...

There you have it. Screw Worldbrands, who even deviously changed the formula before even the bottle change. And rest in peace my dear black friend...
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Sat Oct 11, 2014 10:12 am, edited 2 times in total.
da'rum
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Post by da'rum »

On the bright side you have two bottles if pipe sweetener.

But I agree that the mega's can fornicate with themselves.
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Uisge
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Post by Uisge »

Uh, point of order, Black Bottle is not part of Diageo's offerings, it IS part of Burn Stewart Distillers however.

From their "About Us " page;
Burn Stewart Distillers is part of the Distell Group Limited, Africa’s leading producer and marketer of spirits, fine wines, ciders and ready to drinks. The company’s Head Office is based in East Kilbride, Scotland and its principal trading activities are the distillation, blending, bottling and marketing of Scotch Whisky brands in the UK and internationally.

The company owns and operates three malt distilleries: Bunnahabhain (Islay), Tobermory (Mull) and Deanston (Doune, near Stirling). It has a blending and maturation facility at Airdrie and a bottling hall and dry and finished goods storage site at East Kilbride. The company also operates a sales and marketing branch in Taiwan.

Brands

Burn Stewart produces and markets a well balanced range of Scotch Whisky brands. Its core blends include Scottish Leader and Black Bottle, with the single malts portfolio consisting of Bunnahabhain, Tobermory, Deanston and Ledaig.


Interesting that Distell's listing of Black Bottle is out of date, and they only list Bunnahabhain as the single malt in the portfolio, but no listing of either Deanston, Lediag nor Tobermory.




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(Rare) Capn's Log: my apologies to Diageo, as detailed below. Changes made in red, above...
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Uisge
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Post by Uisge »

And if the good Cap'n would see fit to provide for me an address, I would happily provide for you and Sue Sea the pre-change standard bottle of Black Bottle that I compared the 10YO version to, as seen here (it is only 2 drams less of the full 750ml, btw).
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Front of the labels, with the standard version of the blend to the right
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

A big thanks to the U-man...


...a perfect example of less than perfect researching for me. Let me offer this weak but revealing explanation. To determine the ownership of Black Bottle I used Duck Duck Go with the search phrase "who owns black bottle scotch whiskey" The first listing of the return:
"Here's a rough guide of who's who, and who owns what. Diageo. Diageo is the ... and now owns four distilleries: Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Ledaig and Tobermory. It also produces blends Black Bottle and Scotch Leader ... SCOTCH WHISKY drinkers could face another hike in the cost of their ..."
Ouch!

All an idiot in a rush need do is to ignore the "..." (which indicates missing copy) and leap with unearned confidedence to a conclusion. Depending on the return, this frequently works - but as is painfully obvious - it is worth taking another minute to actually read actual linked source.

Thanks again U-man. Lesson learned, and what a lovely offer. Still though, now it's time to examine your citation of "Burn Stewart" as the owner, ergo your turn...
"CL WorldBrands Limited

Trindad’s CL Worldbrands, owner of Angostura bitters, bought Burn Stewart in 2003, and now owns four distilleries: Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Ledaig and Tobermory. It also produces blends Black Bottle and Scotch Leader."
Thus the final answer? CL Worldbrands - not Diageo, not Burn Stewart - now owns Black Bottle. For at least the next 15 minutes, lol. The point: the buying and selling of properties by the mega's is hard to keep track of. Just for fun I searched on "who owns CL Worldbrands" and - are all confused yet - the search now revealed this:
"15th April, 2013 by Andy Young
Distell has bought Scotch whisky producer, Burn Stewart Distillers, from CL World Brands and Angostura for £160 million."
So now our game of musical owners has progressed again. So far:

1. Black Bottle was established by Gordon Graham and Co. in Glasgow in 1879. The original formula was said to be "smoky" and was bottled in yes, a black bottle.

2. Family control ended in 1958, when "asset strippers bought and split up the company, selling on the Black Bottle brand to Long John Distilleries Ltd in 1958", whereupon the brand was changed to a cheaper and unremarkable blend.


3. The modern change to seven Islay whiskeys to recreate the original formula is alleged to have occurred in 1990.

2. Burn Stewart (including Bunnahabhain) bought Black Bottle as detailed by the U-man in 2003, but wisely left the 7-Islay formula well alone. Stewart's Bunnahabhain Islay became the background Islay. This was the best and most authentic Black Bottle ever produced and received multiple raves by both drinkers and reviewers. Jim Murray repeatedly called it the "best standard Scotch blend available" in 2005 and 2006.

3. Almost simultaneously, C L Worldbrands bought Burn Stewart also in 2003, and left Black Bottle and their formula alone - but only for awhile. Pushing for more profit they made the horrible decision to allow master blender Ian Macmillan (of BS) to begin changing change Black Bottle's formula in 2006, and continuing to about the present. Not only did this fail to win new drinkers but understandably began to lose the old ones.

Stupid is as Stupid does.

4. Having completely ruined this classic, C L then sold off Black Bottle to Distell in 2013 whose crack marketing monkeys pulled a Mount Gay, kept the failed new formula, but were just absolutely, positively sure that all that was needed to turn things around was to dump the 100 year old classic green glass bottle, and replace it with a black glass modern flask-like bottle. Their pitch was that they were returning to a modern version of the original bottle, and original blend (forgetting that the Black Bottle we all know and love was actually conceived in 1990). It is clear that the goal remains to somehow compete with the Grants, Walkers, et al with their new yet original bland, er blend. Makes sense, right?

And I thought I was an idiot. So what have we now? A classic destroyed in every possible way. Good work, arseholes....



*******
http://www.burnstewartdistillers.com/pa ... ack-bottle
http://www.whisky-pages.com/stories/black-bottle.htm
http://whisky1.wordpress.com/distillery ... s-to-whom/
http://www.thedrinksreport.com/news/201 ... ottle.html
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Capn Jimbo
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Post by Capn Jimbo »

Here's the point, which I'm sure is not really news...


1. The mega's buy popular brands, then cheapen them.

2. The mega's buy niche brands (like Black Bottle), believing that they can remake and reposition them for broader sales.

3. The master blenders (in this case MacMillan) are ordered to (a) make the changes and (b) then counsel the poor sap as to how they wish to lie, er reposition their efforts and the product.

I wonder how long he had to be whipped to say this...
" Ian MacMillan said:

“The challenge was to develop a liquid that was more in line with the original character of Black Bottle while maintaining all of the quality for which the brand is renowned. I wanted to reintroduce a richness to balance the smokiness of the blend and in turn allow each component to contribute to the overall flavour.

“This whisky will appeal to the experienced blended drinker who enjoys drinking Scotch neat as well as those exploring whiskies for the first time and who prefer to add a mixer. Restoring the blend to its former glory has been a rewarding and nostalgic experience as it has given me the opportunity to revisit the original identity of Black Bottle.”
What is conveniently forgotten is that no one - none of us have any remote recollection of either the original-original bottle or mildly smoky blend from uh, fackin 1879.

We do remember the classic green bottle (from 1914 until 2013) and the seven Islay formula from 1990 that made Black Bottle both famous and unequalled in our times. No one gives a moose dropping about 1879. It's all made up and we - lovely little and complaint beggars - are supposed to cheer and bow before our mega-corporate marketeers for their wonderful historical efforts.

You may puke now. It's simple. The Black Bottle of our lifetime has been prostituted and ruined. It is nothing more than a name to print on a label, and trust me it will not succeed. The already established blander blends will prevail. Black Bottle will continue to fail and be passed from one mega to another until further notice.

Such is life.




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Post by NCyankee »

Unfortunately from what I have heard Teacher's seems to have undergone a formulation change within the last few years and is now a shadow of what it used to be. I have been nursing the last of a 1.75 ltr bottle that I am pretty sure is of the old formulation because it still has a lot of that lovely band aid smell and peaty taste.
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