BLACK DOG SCOTCH WHISKY
Was SIR Walter Samuel Millard A Hoax?
Diageo’s Black Dog 12 YO and 8 YO Blended Scotch Whiskies
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| Black Dog Deluxe Gold & Centenary Black Reserve Scotch Whiskies in 2015 |
Black Dog is a brand of
Scotch whisky that is bottled and marketed in India by United Spirits Limited
(USL), a subsidiary of Diageo PLC. In 2013, Black Dog was reported to be the
world's fastest-growing Scotch whisky by volume, according to International Wine
and Spirits Research (IWSR), with the highest consumption reported in India.
The whiskies used in the blend come from Scotland. Black Dog Scotch Whisky sold
in India is bottled in Parmori District, Nashik, in Maharashtra, by importing the
undiluted spirits from Scotland, a strategy that avoids the 150% import duties
on liquor entering India that is bottled prior to import, while paying only
about 30% when bottled in India. The Black Dog Centenary Black Reserve is a
reasonably well-matured and blended 8-year-old and the Deluxe Gold Reserve was a decent 12-year-old Scotch whisky.
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| Sir Walter Millard features prominently on both items |
Originally, the print on the carton and the bottle labels, as can be seen above for the Deluxe Gold Reserve, both began, ”Sir Walter Millard travelled to Scotland in 1883 in search of an impeccable Scotch whisky. His search ended in a blend created by James Mackinlay from Leith. Being a keen angler, Sir Walter Millard named the whisky Black Dog in honour of his favourite salmon fishing fly used in the Spey and Tay rivers of Scotland since the early 19th century. Thus was born the Black Dog Scotch Whisky.” This was followed by details of the nose, palate, finish and other regulation attributes, which is the norm for most brands of alcohol. The very same tale featured on the 8 YO as well. The story of this Sir Walter Millard fishing for salmon in the Spey and Tay rivers in the Scottish Highlands (Speyside) simply did not ring true.
A study shows that these are patently false claims. Walter Samuel Millard (1864–1952) was born
in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire in 1864, the seventh son of Rev. J.H. Millard, and
was a 19-year-old stripling in 1883. To claim that an impoverished and unknown lad of 19 could be an expert in assessing an international-class blended Scotch whisky specially created for export to the Indian subcontinent and other British Colonies in proximity is a gross distortion of the truth. Moreover, the impossibly steep cost of a single fishing rod licence for Salmon, whether in England or Scotland, was beyond the financial capacity of this seventh son of a Pastor and ruled out fly-fishing as his 'Lordly' avocation. There is no record of Millard being awarded an OBE or his being knighted either. Ergo, Walter Samuel Millard was a simple employee of a Wine and Spirits shop owner in Bombay, one Herbert Musgrave Phipson (1850–1936). Millard managed the wines and spirits department and eventually joined Phipson in the Bombay Natural History Society and became the Editor of its Journal once Phipson retired. He would have risen in stature to Manager of the wine shop with time, all the while accruing a small fortune.
The entire lot of Black Dog whiskies were suddenly taken out of the Indian market in 2017-18, for rewording and to possibly preclude uncomfortable questions about Mr Millard. Today, on return to the market, there is no such fulsome and repeated mention of Sir Walter Millard. Pray, why would such a “prominent”
name, which had featured for decades, be removed?
This brand of whisky reappeared only in 2018-19, in a radically different avatar and with the notation on the bottle labels and cardboard cartons changed considerably. The Black Dog Deluxe Gold Reserve became the Black Dog Triple Gold Reserve. The notation on the Black Dog Centenary Black Reserve also changed almost totally. How and why did this change come about?
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| No mention of Sir Walter Millard |
This is what the Black Dog Triple Gold Blended Scotch whisky looks like today, with a decent cardboard carton. There is no mention of SIR Walter Millard. An online link is available at a liquor reviewing site, whiskybase.com and the photo there is from the 60s.
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| THE BLACK DOG TRIPLE GOLD RESERVE OF TODAY |
In the 19th century the sun never set over the British Empire, so vast was its spread. Since the only mode of international cross-continental travel was by sea, the Empire invariably faced logistic and infrastructural problems as sea routes were subject to unpredictable weather conditions en route, especially while navigating around South Africa on an England-India trip or the reverse. While a great many problems could be resolved by local provisioning, the high and mighty faced problems in specific victuals like beef and pork products and other supplies which could only be brought from back home, e.g., wine, stronger alcohol and tobacco.
Herbert Musgrave Phipson
was a British wine merchant and naturalist who lived in Bombay
(now Mumbai), India, from 1878 to 1905. He had come to India in 1878 as a
partner in the firm of J. A. Forbes & Co., Bombay. In 1883, he established
his own company, Phipson & Co. Wine Merchants in Ballard Estate, Fort Bombay, a commercial sector, and found that he required a British employee cum store manager to assist him as he was also recommended for the important but busy post of the Honorary Secretary of the soon-to-be-founded Bombay Natural History Society and the Editor of its Journal.
Phipson and Co. was fated to expand quickly and have outlets all over Asia, in present-day Pakistan, India,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, the
Philippines and more, which required a lot of shuttling to and fro. But then, this was an immensely productive and rewarding line of business and the company, with an ever-expanding list of customers and employees, was to rake in the money hand over fist.
In 1883, having set up shop, Phipson went to England to place bulk orders for his trade and also set up both contacts and contracts with stockists of Red, White and Rose Wines, Port, Sherry, Gin, Brandy, Cognac and Whisky, while seeking to employ a suitable individual willing to come to India as his assistant for an unknown period of time. He employed a Briton from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, Walter Samuel Millard (1864–1952), an educated, if impoverished, young bachelor who would soon become fairly knowledgeable about liquor, which would be traced back to his in-laws to be. Both Millard and Phipson were Britishers but Millard was in no position to take up 'Lordly' angling as an avocation. The cost of a licence for a single fishing rod, that too for salmon, was (and still is) impossibly steep and way beyond reach of the British proletariat.
Whisky could only be procured from Scotland. Phipson was hard-pressed for time to find a Whisky to suit the hot and dusty Indian and other Asian countries. Having completed his negotiations with Mackinlay, he detailed Millard to do the concomitant legwork. Both Millard and Phipson were pure Britishers, with no Scottish connections. This implied that the 19-year-old Millard had to travel to Scotland, scout the numerous districts, distilleries and agents and make an informed decision. Travel in a hilly, wet and undeveloped Scotland was never easy with the horse and carriage system in vogue while waiting for the steam-engined train to arrive north of the relatively flat-terrain England and settle.
Phipson had already specified his requirements. He briefed Millard to go to Speyside, look up all 25-odd Glenlivet distilleries and others and then fetch up at Mackinlay's in Leith, Edinburgh, where he would be expected. He was to get Mackinlay to produce and/or provide a good blended whisky as discussed that would suit conditions in Asia. By then, MacKinlay’s name and fame had spread in distilling and blending circles, to peak with the 15-YO blends that he would supply Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton between 1898 and 1907. He was known in Scotland as the 'Royalty of Whisky
Millard met Mackinlay's daughter Sarah at Leith and was betrothed to her as a young 19-year-old youth. Phipson was about to leave England when the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) was founded on 15 September 1883. Upon his return to Bombay, he immediately joined BNHS. Phipson served as the Honorary Secretary of the Bombay Natural History Society and the Editor of its Journal for twenty years – as the sole editor for fifteen years till 1901 and then a joint editor with Millard, who succeeded him as Hon'y Sec'y in 1906, when Phipson returned home due to his wife's continued sickness. There is no record in the UK of Walter Samuel Millard ever being knighted. This was a hoax played on the gullible customer. However, his services to the Society supra and other causes, as also to the British Armed Forces as a provender of high-quality perishables, are indisputable, as also those of Mr HM Phipson.
In 1875, Charles registered the brand Mackinlays Vatted Old Benvorlich Scotch whisky and opened offices in London, first on Queen Victoria Street then at Crutched Friar. Mackinlays Vatted Old Benvorlich was thus introduced to London. He purchased Corbett Borthwicks Warehouse, East Old Dock, Leith, later that year and used it as his blending headquarters.
James, son of Charles Mackinlay, established 1815 (see label), was a second-generation whisky blender from the Leith family who produced a large number of brands of
different ages, like Mackinlay's 'Fine Old Scotch Whisky' as three to seven-year-olds were known and 'Rare Old Scotch Whisky', the term for eight-year-olds. He was also a supplier of raw single malt whiskies to other whisky brands
that were sprouting all over, once the ban on blending grain and malt whiskies
was removed for distillers in 1860 and for grocers in 1863. Millard toured the
smallish Speyside region as ordered, taking extensive notes of as many popular
brands as he could find. He then left for Edinburgh, for Mackinlay's
establishment. As stated earlier, he met and fell in love with Mackinlay's
daughter there, whom he was to ultimately wed in 1889, the year the finest 12
YO expression of Black Dog was released.
With Phipson's diktats in mind and under the tutelage of James, Millard discovered a blend close to what they were looking for. Its unique taste, delicate aroma and smooth effect on the palate were the aspects that appealed the most and brought an interim end to Millard's quest since time was of the essence and he needed to get back to India. British export rules did not allow the carrying of unnamed and unregistered bottles/containers of alcohol, so the whisky selected had to be named, registered and put on the ship's cargo manifest as such. The prevailing blanket ban on the export of Scotch whisky in wooden containers (read oak barrels) was not in force then and it is not clear whether the whisky was transported in barrels, a format favoured by most blenders, allowing the whisky in the oak casks to absorb maritime air while in transit, or in bottles. Millard may have named it himself, for want of a better option, while Mackinlay helped him register it. There is no evidence to support either hypothesis, though Millard did escort that consignment. There is no record of any whisky named Millard's Black Dog either. Note the design of the fishing fly.
Phipson's actual reaction to this presumed fait accompli is not recorded. There is an interesting but highly improbable anecdote as to the origin of this brand's final label. Being a keen 'Angler' and considering his love for his favourite sport, Millard named the Scotch after his favourite fishing fly - the Black Dog - allowed, in all probability as a quid pro quo by Phipson. This unsubstantiated tidbit notwithstanding, there is a simpler and less fairy-tale-like school of thought. It is quite probable that James Mackinlay, a wealthy Golf-lover and already a big name in Scotch Whisky blending, was titling his own collection of brands after an array of fishing flies and that Millard selected a regal-sounding existing brand, Black Dog. Again, this is unsubstantiated as all of MacKinlay's blends have been examined by me in detail in a separate post. All said and done, Millard had just initialled, with explicit permission from Phipson, a contract for the consignment and was, for that moment, the Boss. The bare and incontestable truth is that Millard was nothing more than a young and educated representative of Phipson in 1883, destined to rise to fame for his long future association with the Bombay Natural History Society, and possibly, the success of his mascot, Black Dog.
This Scotch was only eight years old, a 'Rare Scotch', and in all probability, a blended Scotch whisky. Phipson wanted MacKinlay to try the various whiskies- both single grain and single malts- Millard would have described in his notes. He thus brought about, by default, the most important quality required of a blender of Scotch Whisky, viz., to give the spirit an extended period of time to blend/marry and mature in a wooden cask! MacKinlay was to set up the Glen Mhor Distillery at Inverness in the Highlands in 1892, with an extension in Leith, 160 miles away into the mid-Speyside region to facilitate blending.
Millard loaded a shipful of the Black Dog whisky and set course for India with more to follow. Records show that Millard first set foot in India in early 1884. Competition was building up; Gladstone's Whisky Act of 1860/63 saw a plethora of brands roving overseas in search of markets. While Mackinlay kept up the supply of Black Dog Rare Whisky, he was
also carrying out experiments in his own backyard by adding similarly aged
whiskies based on his knowledge and experience and testing them out. 12-year-old Scotch whiskies were now emerging, though the 'Premium Extra Special'
whiskies were expensive. Millard returned in 1889 for his much-awaited wedding
and, when there, found a delightful new expression that would take centre-stage
globally.
There is yet another school of thought, which, on reflection and ratiocination, seems most likely. Phipson was in England in early 1883, in pursuit of essentials to set up his wine shop. He had heard of James MacKinlay, aka 'The Royalty of Blenders' and wanted to commission him to produce a rare/fine Scotch Whisky to suit Asia and other tropical British colonies. He employed Walter, an educated young lad of 19 for this task. Millard was to scour Speyside for good whiskies, meet up with and assist James in conjuring up a magical potion, while he got back to India, knowing that this would be a time-consuming task. Millard did as ordered, while also courting James' daughter, who he married in 1889, the year James put together the majestic deluxe 12 YO blend. Millard and James were successful in creating a rare 8 YO blend, which Millard, short of time and ideas, named Black Dog on James' advice. As stated earlier, Phipson Black Dog was to follow and make history. This theory supports the fact that Millard first set foot in India in 1884, escorting the consignment of the whisky in question. Was it named Millard Black Dog? While highly unlikely, there is no direct evidence for or against this point.
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Note the DESIGN of the LOGO: the Fishing Fly Source: Noel Moitra A study of the labels
reveals that the Black Dog was a 12 YO Scotch Whisky, specially blended and
bottled for the sole proprietors, Phipson & Co., Limited, 750 ML and 43%
Alcohol by volume. Metrication was introduced in India in Dec 1956, effective 01
Jan 1958, whereas the UK went metric only in 1965. This bottle is therefore of
a 1958 or 1965 vintage. Moreover, Phipson & Co. was established in 1883.
This leads to the same question: was there ever a Millard's Black Dog Scotch
Whisky? Or was this an elaborate USL hoax? This would mean that the USL/Diageo story about Sir Walter Millard and his favourite fishing fly is a myth. This Scotch Whisky could have been named after Millard for only six years, 1883-89, if at all. He was a callow stripling then, certainly not knighted and in no position to be a great angler with a string of fishing flies. The rivers mentioned, Spey and Tay, are in the Speyside region of Scotland and far from accessible from distant Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, Great Britain in the era of horse-drawn carriages and the piecemeal advent of the steam-engined train in Scotland. This is yet another false claim that compounds the myth. Where did the Phipson bottle shown come from? From my memorabilia. No bottle bearing the name Millard Black Dog has yet been found. Or was this a scam buried in posterity, with nobody having the time to check the veracity of any claim of over a hundred and forty years ago?
That said, this 12 YO premium whisky had beaten Johnnie Walker's whiskies by a margin of 20 years; Johnnie Walker's 10 YO Red Label hit the market in that new avatar only in 1909, when a decision was made to simplify the names of its rather pompous but anachronous brands. It was well appreciated, but found inferior to Black Dog, even after it undercut the latter's price. The competition came from Buchanan's 12 YO, Greenlees Brothers' Old Parr (1909) and Haig's Dimple 12 YO. Johnnie Walker's Very Special Old Highland, the much-touted Black Label entered the fray only in 1931. The Chivas Regal 12 YO came decades later, in 1964.  Black Dog was the unchallenged premium
whisky served on board Air India's international flights, as may be seen printed in bold lettering near the base of the label. It was one of the
leading brands of Scotch whisky on board passenger ships and on Indian Navy
warships in that era when every item on board a ship that was not within Indian territorial waters moved into duty-free territory. Surprisingly, Phipson's Black Dog was not available anywhere west of the
Middle East, suggesting the transfer of each and every single one of these bottles
to India and her neighbours and that Phipson held sway only in and around the
Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Australasia via Singapore.  Painstakingly conjured up over a period of twelve long years, Black Dog Scotch instantly became the favourite of connoisseurs all over the world after making a dramatic debut as an eight-year-old in 1883, and re-emerging as a different Premium 12 YO blend six years later. This was hardly surprising, considering that each Black Dog Scotch was a masterful blend of fine taste and exquisite artistry. The label clearly states 'Since 1883'.  A newspaper cutting supposedly bolstering the
Millard story. It is an obvious fraud: In 1883, Walter Samuel Millard was a
19-year old civilian stripling, and certainly not knighted; Sep 17 1883, was a
Tuesday, not Saturday; the word aficionado entered the English dictionary with
a different connotation in the mid-19th century; the spellings of honour/flavour are wrong. I must thank Callum McKean, of the News Reference Team, The British Library, London, who searched through the British Newspaper Archive, a database of digitised local and regional newspapers which is especially comprehensive for the late nineteenth century. He was unable to locate this article. It appeared to him that this is a modern mock-up image as the typeface, wording and layout of the newspaper pictured were not consistent with any late nineteenth-century newspapers of which he was aware. (This perhaps explains the spelling mistakes, wrong selection of words and why the date and day of publication were mismatched too). N M. Today, Phipson's Black Dog
has become a collector's item. My coursemates and I imbibed this and many other
premium brands while celebrating our commissioning into the Indian Air Force in wartime 1971. I
kept my eyes and ears open for any future mention of this brand and found many
old 12-bottle cases of Phipson Black Dog 12 YO in the Indian Navy Duty-Free
Canteen. I managed a bottle or two, to my good luck, off sympathetic
coursemates. When the British started
to leave India in 1942, Phipson and Co. battled hard to stay on, well beyond
1947 when India gained Independence. Walter Millard, who had returned to England in 1920, died in 1952.
Carew & Co., a smaller liquor dealer, and Phipson & Co. were partly taken
over in 1963-64 and merged with itself by McDowell & Co, owned by United
Breweries Group (UB), an Indian alcoholic beverages company. in 2002, the
company acquired Phipson Distillery cementing the slab over the grave of Phipson Black Dog. In
2006, McDowell & Co Ltd, Herbertsons Limited, Triumph Distillers and
Vintners Private Limited, Baramati Grape Industries India Limited, Shaw Wallace
Distilleries Limited and four other companies were merged to form United
Spirits Limited, the world's second-largest spirits company by volume. It is
now a subsidiary of Diageo and headquartered in Bangalore. USL exports its
products to over 37 countries. USL also owned Whyte & Mackay and as Phipson Black Dog died with the taking over of the company, it turned to Richard Paterson, Master Blender at W&M to recreate The Black Dog. This acquisition of Scottish major Whyte & Mackay, with one of the largest inventories of aged malts and grain whisky reserves, saw USL bolstering Black Dog with better-aged variants to prop up premium appeal. USL started premiumising Black Dog. Rather than just placing the product on retail shelves, the company took an account management approach and created a huge buzz around the brand. But Phipson Black Dog rules the roost.
Four versions of the five
current generation Black Dog Scotch Whisky exist today, with one premium
version sold out. The 18 and 25 YO versions may well be extinct, as of today. Current Editions: Black Dog Centenary Black Reserve Scotch Whisky  Black Dog Centenary
Reserve is a rich and rare blended Scotch whisky loaded with exceptional
character. It is blended well with a multitude of malt and grain spirits chosen
from various regions of Scotland. On completing 8 years in barrels, it is
exported to India for bottling and sale. A few barrels are bottled for the
local market as well. The whisky had a distinctive briny note, picked up in
transit from Scotland to India. In 2008, a new law was passed by the Scotch
Whisky Association (SWA) banning of Scotch whisky in wooden casks. The original
proposal of mandating export of Scotch whisky only in properly labelled bottles
was opposed in strength and defeated by distillers. Black Dog Triple Gold Reserve Scotch Whisky  The latest offering from the brand is Black Dog Triple Gold Reserve. In the triple maturation process, Grain and 32 odd Malt whiskies (the descriptive panel says 25) are matured separately in American Bourbon Casks and then blended together and matured again in Oloroso Sherry Butts for an extra long period of time to give the blend a distinctive flavour and a delicate finish. This gives this scotch a very fine finish, and is a tangible improvement of the 12 YO Black Dog Deluxe Gold Reserve. Its effect on the market is yet to be assessed, what with Whyte & Mackay and its massive inventory being sold yet again, this time to Philippines-based Emperador Inc. These whiskies come from four regions of Scotland - Speyside, Islay, Highlands and Lowlands, each matured for a minimum period of 12 years creating a bouquet that captures all the flavours of Scotland, giving the blend its very distinctive flavour and taste. Over 80% of its output is bottled in India, the balance going into travel packs in Duty-Free shops and other markets. There is a distinct difference between the two, with the bottled-in-Scotland version markedly superior. This is most possibly caused by the effect of transit from Scotland to hot and dusty India in huge inert metal containers before bottling in Nashik. Even so, this version is but a pale shadow of the glorious Phipson Black Dog 12 YO of yesteryear. Whyte & Mackay use a different source of water, have different stills and can NEVER replicate Mackinlay's whiskies. That said, Johnny Walker Black Label started to use peated Caol Ila 12 YO, Talisker 12, along with Cardhu, Oban, Glenkinchie, Dalwhinnie, Dailuaine, Linkwood, Clynelish and Cragganmore among others, changing the flavour profile markedly and elevating this brand to No.1 in the Blended Scotch 12 YO range, from which it was displaced in India by Chivas Regal, The Famous Grouse 12 YO, which was discontinued for a few years but is freely available now. Teacher's 50, Ballantine's 12 YO, Dewar's 12 YO and Buchanan's 12 YO are currently vying for top honours in this category. Grand Old Parr is not easily available in India. Incidentally, The Famous Grouse Malt Whisky is also a great 12 YO Blended Malt whisky.   Black Dog Reserve Scotch Whisky  Black Dog 18 years old Scotch Whisky is known as Black Dog Reserve Scotch. It is matured for a minimum of 18 years in oak casks. Master blenders carefully put together a fine blend of Aged Malt and Grain Whiskies to make this an exceptional Scotch whisky. Black Dog Reserve Scotch won Gold award at the MUNDUS Vini International Spirit Awards held in Germany in 2011. This is the third Gold award won by this 18-year-old whisky, making it one of the top five of the world’s best-tasting 18-year-old blended Scotch whiskies. I can vouch for it, as it melts into your tongue like honey. It is as good as The Glen Ord Singleton 18 YO, which helps form the body of JW Blue Label, a NAS blend. Black Dog Quintessence Scotch Whisky  The Black Dog Quintessence
is a 21-year-old blend. It is pure liquid gold as it is handcrafted to
meticulous perfection by Black Dog’s master blenders. Only 25 of the finest
single malts and grain whiskies have been drawn from the Highland region of
Scotland, in particular from Speyside to provide that special key – “finesse”.
Like a loving partnership, each individual part has made its own inimitable
contribution. Balance and harmony prevail throughout this noble elegant
spirit. After a long 20-year maturation in Bourbon barrels, the final year is
spent in the finest Oloroso sherry butts. These aren't just any sherry butts;
they are specially selected from Spain’s noblest Bodegas of Gonzalez Byass in
Jerez de la Frontera; these Matusalem butts provide the perfect platform to
marry and mould Black Dog 21 years old Blended Scotch Whisky. This whisky has been sold out, more's the
pity. I did manage to taste it at The Patio, Gurgaon in 2013 and can still recall that
dram. The Black Dog Deluxe Gold Reserve 12 YO is available at most duty-free shops at close to US$ 37.00 per 750 CL. These are all Bottled In Scotland whiskies but are rapidly fading out. They are far too expensive. In the free market in India, The Black Dog Deluxe Gold Reserve 12 YO Bottled In India is readily available at the INR equivalent of US$ 16-22. The rush for this brand at this price by people who don't care where it was bottled is unbelievable. Black Dog's scorching growth contrasts with overall blended scotch sales coming under pressure globally for different reasons. In India, the red-tape festooned bureaucracy has barred the sale of imported Scotch whisky to just the Defence Forces for reasons unknown. The only other blended scotch brands to report five-year double-digit growth are Black & White (19.8%), Old Parr (14.8%), Passport (13.7%) and VAT 69 (10%) among a list of the world's 50 top scotch brands compiled by International Wine & Spirit Research.  Photo Credits: Kerman Moitra References: https://www.howold.co/person/herbert-musgrave-phipson https://www.liquisearch.com/herbert_musgrave_phipson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Samuel_Millard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Musgrave_Phipson https://www.wikizero.com/en/Black_Dog_(whisky) https://www.sommelierindia.com/usl_launches_black_dog_21_year/ https://www.facebook.com/loversblackdog/?__tn__=-UC*F https://noelonwhisky.blogspot.com/2017/02/shackletons-scotch-monopoly.html https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Huntingdon https://www.diageoindia.com/brands/brand-profiles/black-dog-gold-reserve/ |
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