Moon Import

Moon Import was established by Pepi Mongiardino in the town of Genoa in 1980. His introduction to whisky came in the 1970s while working for Spirit SpA which at the time the Italian distributor for Hiram Walker brands such as Ardbeg, Ballantine’s and Miltonduff. When the time came for him to strike out on his own, he was fortunate in his friendly relationship with several notable contemporaries.

The first of these was Silvano Samaroli, who advised him to be remain free of the shackles of the catalogues of big companies like Gordon & MacPhail and to seek out the whisky that he himself wanted to bottle. This lead Mongiardino to call Invergordon Distillers and enquire about the license to distribute Bruichladdich, which they gladly offered him. The second was Edoardo Giaccone, who was the first person he went to see when his first bottlings of Bruichladdich were on their way. Having spent all his money on advertising time on TV Canal 5, Mongiardino was kindly assisted by Giaccone who offered to take to those airwaves for free to promote the now revered Islay distillery. Moon Import represented Bruichladdich in Italy for five years before accepting the offer from Invergordon to sell the newly-shined brand to Fratelli Rinaldi and attempt to repeat the trick with ...