Black Colonel Whisky

[patriciard]

Hello,

I just found this bottle in an old attic and I can't find any info about it online.
Can anyone tell what year is this bottle? Is value? Any info at all?

Thanks,
Patricia

[Dale]

Well... It's obviously a blended whisky. I'm not finding a current listing for Empire Whisky Company, so it looks like they have been acquired and/or shuttered at some point, and for some time. I went through all of the whisky books I've read and looked for both Empire and Black Colonel and neither is listed any of the indexes.

As for value, it is purely speculative. And probably, trivial. I do see a past auction result from 2009 at whiskyauction.com for a 5 cl mini for at 7 Euro.

Given the slight label scuffing, the worst part about the bottle for a collector is its provenance being an attic. This would suggest temperature swings from cold in the winter to hot in the summer, and this is not beneficial for someone who might want to drink it. However, since the producer is likely out of business, it is likely anyone wanting to acquire this has no intention of drinking it. It's also possible they might be willing to bid to a price which makes no rational sense to the rest of the world merely because they want the bottling for part of a larger collection.

I find information suggesting the bottling was, at least, imported into Italy. Who knows it may have been made for the Italian market, or export?

Finally, I also find two other bottlings with different brand names attributed to Empire Whisky Company, so they had some success at some point.

We'll see if anyone else can come up with more concrete information. I'll be looking forward to it.

[blenderm]

Empire Whisky Co was a subsidiary of Tower Blending Ltd of Glasgow and London. They were based in Glasgow but I understand that their main brand Queen Margaret stopped trading about 1984