Our Journal

We are on a mission; a mission to find perfection in quality for all things spirits. We do what we do with much opinions, risk-taking and questions, but in typical Italian fashion all these are embraced, challenged and then celebrated. Along this path, we’ve come to realise that differences and uniqueness in fact bring about perfection in quality. And perfect quality at its pinnacle is as unique as you and I and they are. We actually like this idea that our choices are unique as you are, and quality is not perfect. Perfectly imperfect perhaps. The products we tirelessly search, taste and bottle, are almost always different and individual in character. As such, every Samaroli bottle should almost always be tasted with a bit of excitement and surprise; like a kid in a candy store. Prepare yourselves for a tasting adventure where quality is reinterpreted and perhaps continually challenged; as no one is better than the other. But reflecting in its entirety, the sum of all these perfectly imperfect bottles add into a collection of uniquely perfect spirits – not alcohol.

For dedicated whisky collectors, there are few independent bottlers as iconic and revered as that of the late Silvano Samaroli and the Corti Brothers. The former, a visionary Italian importer and bottler whose whiskies are compared to works of art, and the latter, American gastronomic specialists who bought and bottled casks from legendary distilleries during the industry downturn in the 1980s. Their expressions are now some of the most prized in existence. Now, a collection of 60 of these whiskies, unmatched in provenance and curated by the celebrated connoisseur and collector Emmanuel Dron, is coming to auction in a landmark sale presented by Whisky Auctioneer.

Samaroli bottles regularly receive the highest scores by critics, and I must admit that out of my top three whiskies I have had the pleasure of tasting, two were bottled by Silvano. Of all his bottlings there are a couple that stand out as being particularly iconic.

- The first is the venerable Bowmore Bouquet (1966), which holds the accolade of being the most valuable Samaroli bottle after selling at Sotheby’s in 2019 for £72,600.

- The second is the Laphroaig Samaroli 15 Year Old (1967). Notorious Islay collector Marcel Van Gils said, “Every whisky aficionado will agree that Silvano Samaroli’s Laphroaigs rate amongst the best single malts ever bottled by man. The 1967 and 1970 are arguably only surpassed by some of Silvano’s other casks."

Indeed the Bowmore Bouquetand Laphroaig 1967 received scores of 97 and 98 points respectively on Serge Valentin’s Whisky Fun, and hold the first and fourth place respectively on Whiskybase’s list of the top 1000 whiskies ever bottled (of these 1000 whiskies, the top five were all bottled by Silvano Samaroli).

Samaroli died in 2017 at the age of 77. While the sad news of his passing was felt across the whisky industry, he left an unforgettable legacy preserved within these bottles.