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End Date : Sep 17 2025 08:00 PM
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Bowmore 22 Year Old. Seagulls. Ceramic bottle. Bottled 1990s. 70cl. 43%. In presentation box. Weight approx 1.41kg.
An old bottle of Bowmore 22-year-old Islay single malt whisky bottled by the distillery at 43% in the mid to late 1990s in a beautiful midnight blue ceramic bottle depicting seagulls flying over Loch Indaal under a crescent moon.
This is a famous old Bowmore 22-year-old, originally called Moonlight by the distillery but known less romantically to most aficionados as Seagulls. The whisky inside would likely have been distilled no later than the early 1970s and is every bit as good as you’d expect. A tropical fruity classic from Bowmore with very gentle peat and a mellow sherry presence.
Constructed in 1779, Bowmore is Islay’s oldest distillery and dominates the island’s capital. After changing hands several times early in the 20th century, Bowmore distillery was bought by Stanley P. Morrison in 1963 and embarked on a golden era. This lasted until the early 1980s, when a strangely soapy character took hold in Bowmore’s spirit, before another run of extraordinary quality in the 1990s. The Japanese firm Suntory took full control of Bowmore in 1994, the year after the first release of Black Bowmore, a legendary whisky that catalysed the prestige whisky market.
Early official bottlings of Bowmore are highly sought after, particularly the Sherriff’s bottlings, the stunning Bicentenary editions, and the 1950s-70s vintage editions that appeared from the early 1980s. The modern Bowmore 1964 Trilogies and subsequent prestige bottlings are also fiercely contested by deep-pocketed fans, as are the numerous fabulous old indie bottlings of 1960s vintages by Samaroli, Giaccone, Duncan Taylor, Signatory and others.
Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.
This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.
| BID | DATE | TIME | |
|---|---|---|---|
| £10.00 | 10th September 2025 | 10:06 PM | |
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