A big thanks to the U-man...
...a perfect example of less than perfect researching for me. Let me offer this weak but revealing explanation. To determine the ownership of Black Bottle I used Duck Duck Go with the search phrase "
who owns black bottle scotch whiskey" The first listing of the return:
"Here's a rough guide of who's who, and who owns what. Diageo. Diageo is the ... and now owns four distilleries: Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Ledaig and Tobermory. It also produces blends Black Bottle and Scotch Leader ... SCOTCH WHISKY drinkers could face another hike in the cost of their ..."
Ouch!
All an idiot in a rush need do is to ignore the "..." (which indicates missing copy) and leap with unearned confidedence to a conclusion. Depending on the return, this frequently works - but as is painfully obvious - it is worth taking another minute to actually read actual linked source.
Thanks again U-man. Lesson learned, and what a lovely offer. Still though, now it's time to examine your citation of "Burn Stewart" as the owner, ergo your turn...
"CL WorldBrands Limited
Trindad’s CL Worldbrands, owner of Angostura bitters, bought Burn Stewart in 2003, and now owns four distilleries: Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Ledaig and Tobermory. It also produces blends Black Bottle and Scotch Leader."
Thus the final answer? CL Worldbrands - not Diageo, not Burn Stewart - now owns Black Bottle. For at least the next 15 minutes, lol. The point: the buying and selling of properties by the mega's is hard to keep track of. Just for fun I searched on "who owns CL Worldbrands" and - are all confused yet - the search now revealed this:
"15th April, 2013 by Andy Young
Distell has bought Scotch whisky producer, Burn Stewart Distillers, from CL World Brands and Angostura for £160 million."
So now our game of musical owners has progressed again. So far:
1. Black Bottle was established by Gordon Graham and Co. in Glasgow in 1879. The original formula was said to be "smoky" and was bottled in yes, a black bottle.
2. Family control ended in 1958, when "
asset strippers bought and split up the company, selling on the Black Bottle brand to Long John Distilleries Ltd in 1958", whereupon the brand was changed to a cheaper and unremarkable blend.
3. The modern change to seven Islay whiskeys to recreate the original formula is alleged to have occurred in 1990.
2. Burn Stewart (including Bunnahabhain) bought Black Bottle as detailed by the U-man in 2003, but wisely left the 7-Islay formula well alone. Stewart's Bunnahabhain Islay became the background Islay. This was the best and most authentic Black Bottle ever produced and received multiple raves by both drinkers and reviewers. Jim Murray repeatedly called it the "best standard Scotch blend available" in 2005 and 2006.
3. Almost simultaneously, C L Worldbrands bought Burn Stewart also in 2003, and left Black Bottle and their formula alone - but only for awhile. Pushing for more profit they made the horrible decision to allow master blender Ian Macmillan (of BS) to begin changing change Black Bottle's formula in 2006, and continuing to about the present. Not only did this fail to win new drinkers but understandably began to lose the old ones.
Stupid is as Stupid does.
4. Having completely ruined this classic, C L then sold off Black Bottle to Distell in 2013 whose crack marketing monkeys pulled a Mount Gay, kept the failed new formula, but were just absolutely, positively sure that all that was needed to turn things around was to dump the 100 year old classic green glass bottle, and replace it with a black glass modern flask-like bottle. Their pitch was that they were returning to a modern version of the original bottle, and original blend (forgetting that the Black Bottle we all know and love was actually conceived in 1990). It is clear that the goal remains to somehow compete with the Grants, Walkers, et al with their new yet original bland, er blend. Makes sense, right?
And I thought I was an idiot. So what have we now? A classic destroyed in every possible way. Good work, arseholes....
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http://www.burnstewartdistillers.com/pa ... ack-bottle
http://www.whisky-pages.com/stories/black-bottle.htm
http://whisky1.wordpress.com/distillery ... s-to-whom/
http://www.thedrinksreport.com/news/201 ... ottle.html