Bowmore 1984-1999 - Samaroli Dreams

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.

Samaroli is the most iconic of the legendary Italian independent whisky bottlers that helped shape the market for single malt whisky. Silvano Samaroli set up his spirits import business in 1968 and was an early champion of single cask bottlings and cask strength whiskies. 

Samaroli moved into independent bottling at the end of the 1970s, initially with exclusive casks from Cadenhead’s, who subsequently bottled dozens of casks for Samaroli through their R. W. Duthie subsidiary. Samaroli incorporated his love for art onto his labels, giving his bottles a strikingly beautiful aesthetic.

Many of the single malt whiskies selected and released by Samaroli in the 1980s and ‘90s were old vintages from Scotland’s greatest distilleries, and several of these whiskies have now attained legendary status, commanding extraordinary prices at auction.