Wilson and Morgan Italian Distillery Coming of Age
Founded in 1992, Wilson & Morgan has built a reputation for offering small batch single malt whisky releases, a focus on cask management, and a distinctive style that follows the owners’ individual tastes, as well as the tastes of their customers.
A major part of the Rossi family’s business has been trading wine since the 1920s when Giuseppe Rossi, grandpa of current chairman Fabio Rossi, started his company in Venice. He left it then to his son, Mario Rossi, who moved to Treviso in the nearby region.
Wilson and Morgan Since 1961
His son Fabio Rossi was born in 1961 and still remembers the smell of peat in the house when he was a child. His father Davide Rossi was a whisky importer when whisky was just beginning to gain popularity in Italy thanks to the economic boom.
Notably, the very first whisky launch was bottled from casks selected from the Cadenhead warehouses. At the time, there were a large amount of great malts available because of the recession of the 1980s. They were deliberately bottled at 46% and without chill-filtration or coloring when the other brands were still using 40%. It was a bold statement of quality for the time, even though it has become more common today.
Although these bottlings sold well, it took some time for the brand to become recognized. The bottlings are highly sought after these days, and auction prices reflect that. Single malts became a hot commodity in the early 2000s with the internet making information accessible and online trading helping. Whisky connoisseurs from around the world began searching for the best independent bottlings.
In addition, in just a few short years, Fabio Rossi had already expanded his views and accumulated casks made from a variety of sources. Wilson & Morgan had become widely known in Europe and was beginning to gain recognition in Asia as well.