Back In Black
A black bottle always looks menacing, or at least mysterious, and both of those can be good things when it comes to premium whisky, so Gordon Graham’s Black Bottle blended Scotch whisky is back in its traditional black bottle as of now. Gordon Graham was acquired by Burn Stewart Distillery 10 years ago and after a year and a half of research into the matter, the Burn Stewart people decided it was best to ditch the green and go back to black for the bottle design. The original black bottle had to be abandoned approximately 100 years ago around World War I when the German manufacturer for the bottle was somewhat distracted by all this World War I business. Original bottles of the era were difficult to locate but a 1906 version of the spirit was found and the newly redesigned Black Bottle will be based upon that version.
Black Bottle, which has 80% distribution in the UK, is 80 proof [40% alcohol] and retails for $31 per 750 ml bottle in the USA – which should receive more distribution in October 2013 with the new redesign.