Moon Import was founded by Pepi Mongiardino in 1980. Heeding the advice of the late, great, Silvano Samaroli, he opted to be "free from the big companies," and became the official distributor for Islay's Bruichladdich, and later Tamnavulin and Tullibardine, preferring however to procure casks from private owners. Mongiardino bottled his first whisky in 1982, titled the Half Moon series. Always beautifully labelled, Pepi is acclaimed for designing the packaging for Moon Import bottles himself, using images found in old books. The famous Birds, Animals, Costumes and Sea series were all labelled using pictures he discovered in an 18th century German encyclopaedia. These iconic designs, coupled with the quality of the liquid saw Moon Import steadily grow in popularity, and with the help of Intertrade founder, Nadi Fiori, they exported their first bottles to Japan in 2001.
Sails in the Wind was a seven part series released in 1993 and was remarkable in that five of the seven were bottlings of Islay distilleries. This Laphroaig was distilled in 1984 and matured in hogsheads #1558 and #1559.
Laphroaig is the largest of the three heavyweight Islay distilleries in Kildalton, out-stripping the production capacity of neighbours, Ardbeg and Lagavulin, by over 1 million litres per annum. Despite its traditional appearance, Laphroaig was always a forward-thinking distillery. It was bottled as a single malt as early as the 1920s, an unfashionable option at the time, especially for a peated whisky. They were also shrewd in capitalising on post-Prohibition America to add trademark sweetness to their spirit through the use of imported ex-bourbon casks, and hired Scotland’s first ever female distillery manager, Bessie Williamson, in 1954. Laphroaig is one of only a handful of distilleries in Scotland to still use in-house maltings, providing them with 20% of their annual requirements, and contributing to the distillery’s unique flavour profile.
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