Description

A 9 year old bottle of Laphroiag whisky. Bottled by Moon Import as part of their “Sails in the Wind”, a seven part series released in 1993 and was remarkable in that five of the seven were bottlings of Islay distilleries, all labelled with antique cartography. This Laphroaig was distilled in 1984 and matured in hogsheads #1558 and #1559 before being bottled in 1993. A run of just 720 bottles, this is bottle number 244.

Moon Import was founded in Genoa, by Pepi Mongiardino in 1980 and quickly became famous as an importer and distributor of high quality wines and spirits. Heeding the advice of the late, great, Silvano Samaroli, he opted to be “free from the big companies,” and became the official distributor for Islay’s Bruichladdich, and later Tamnavulin and Tullibardine, preferring however to procure casks from private owners. Mongiardino bottled his first whisky in 1982, titled the Half Moon series. Always beautifully labelled, Pepi is acclaimed for designing the packaging for Moon Import bottles himself, using images found in old books. The famous Birds, Animals, Costumes and Sea series were all labelled using pictures he discovered in an 18th century German encyclopaedia. These iconic designs, coupled with the quality of the liquid saw Moon Import steadily grow in popularity, and with the help of Intertrade founder, Nadi Fiori, they exported their first bottles to Japan in 2001.

Colour: Gold.

Nose:
Strong sea breeze, lots of sea weed and iodine, real harbour feeling at a sunny summer day, shy notes of vanilla, fine peat and smoke, green fruits.

Taste:
Very creamy, mellow, citrusy, little vanilla, subtle sweetness, still reluctant peat and smoke, minerals.

Finish:
Medium long, warm, little grapefruits.