Bruichladdich 2001 Singles of Silvano Samaroli Ocean Wind

Samaroli is perhaps Italy's most revered independent bottler of Scotch whisky. With an impeccable taste in single cask whiskies, and an eye for aesthetics (if not English spelling at times!), he is regarded by many as a visionary. Many of his bottles now occupy deserved sports on the pantheon of whisky greats. Having handed the reigns of the Samaroli company to Antonio Bleve in 2008, Silvano began bottling casks from his personal collections under this Singles of Silvano Samaroli brand. Releases like this one were initially supervised by the man himself, but since his death in 2017, the tradition has been lovingly continued by Masam, the bottling company run by his wife, Maryse Accorsi Samaroli.

This 2001 vintage Bruichladdich is one of 300 bottles drawn from cask #92 in 2016.

An austere piece of Victorian architecture on the north-east coast of Islay, Bunnahabhain is a relative outsider on the island, traditionally known for producing an un-peated single malt. The majority of this was used for blending, as was its initial intended purpose. The distillery was shut for 2 years in 1982 following the market downturn of the period, and despite being revived at low production, it was eventually officially bottled as a single malt later that decade, with the self-deprecating tag-line, "the un-pronounceable malt."