Black Bottle is a blended Scotch Whisky bottled by Burn Stewart Distillers. The brand was introduced in 1879 and was first produced by Aberdeen tea blenders Charles, David and Gordon Graham. After many years of decline prompted by a distillery fire and subsequent business sale, the Black Bottle recipe was changed in 1990 with a new blend using Islay single malt whiskies. It was changed again in 2013 reducing the peat component. Black Bottle was indeed sold in a black bottle until 1914. Supplies of the black glass bottle came from Germany and had to be abandoned after the start of World War I. The non-vintage bottle was dark green until 2013 when it was changed back to black. That's the heavily plagiarized history lesson over folks! I created a separate entry given this is the ~ 50 year bottling based on the old pre 1990s recipe. It's not bad at all. This is the 2nd old bottling of a bog standard blended whiskey I've had (the other being a 1970s Black and White). Both have way more character than their bland current variants. Why did blends become synonymous with mediocrity given the standard they were at 40 / 50 years ago? Profit? Changing tastes? Inability to obtain their core components? Ok update apparently in 1959 the family sold the company and over the next 30 years it got watered down to nothing. The 1990s recipe was a revamp under new owners who used every working distillery in Islay. Laphroaig, Ardbeg and primarily Bunnahabhain. The whiskey itself has a dual personality. One side very sweet honey (almost meadish) the other a light Islay peat. I wouldn't say massive complexity or anything but way more personality even at 40% than the current blends.