Justerini & Brooks

Justerini & Brooks is a fine wine and spirits merchant founded in St. James's in 1749, originally to provide wine and spirits to the aristocratic households of London. The firm has been a supplier to every British monarch since the coronation of King George III in 1761.[1] It sells to private collectors, hotels, and restaurants across the United Kingdom. Justerini & Brooks is owned by multinational Diageo.[2]

Justerini & Brooks Ltd.
IndustryManufacturing and distillation of liquors and wine
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
ProductsDistilled and blended liquors, wine
Websitejusterinis.com
J&B Rare
TypeScotch Whisky
ManufacturerDiageo
Country of origin Scotland
Introduced1749
Alcohol by volume 40%
WebsiteJ&B Rare

History

Justerini and Brooks was founded in 1749 by Giacomo Justerini from Bologna, the son of a distiller, and English investor George Johnson. Together, they founded the wine merchants Johnson & Justerini. In 1760, Justerini returned to his native land after selling the business to Johnson. Johnson continued to grow the business, naming his grandson, Augustus, as a partner, and building relationships with European suppliers from Bordeaux, Cadiz, Mayence, Reims, Genoa, Dijon and Palermo.[3] The firm received its first Royal Warrant from King George III the next year.[4]

Justerini & Brooks crest

In 1831, the Johnson family sold its interest in the business to Alfred Brooks. The firm was renamed Justerini & Brooks and its headquarters were established in Regent's Park.[5] The New York office opened in 1866.[3]

Today, the company has four offices: the head office in St James's Street, a further office in London's Golden Square, and sales offices in Edinburgh and Hong Kong. Justerini & Brooks is also the main user of the Octavian Vaults, a giant, thirty-acre high-security cellar in Wiltshire. The company operates three other storage warehouses in Bordeaux, Hong Kong, and in Hertfordshire.[6]

Wine and spirits

Justerini & Brooks are known for their selection of fine wines from Burgundy, Barolo and Germany.[7] They are also known for their J&B Rare whisky, a blend of forty-two malt and grain whiskies, including single malts Knockando, Auchroisk and Glen Spey.[8]

Throughout the 1970s, J&B whisky bottles cropped up with remarkable regularity in Italian poliziotteschi, commedia sexy all'italiana and particularly giallo films as a signifier of sophistication and virility, probably influenced by the brand's popularity among the Italian American celebrities Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.[9]

In the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, the main character Patrick Bateman is a habitual drinker of J&B.[10]

In the 1982 John Carpenter remake of "The Thing", helicopter pilot R.J. MacCready, played by Kurt Russell, is shown throughout the movie drinking J&B.

References
  1. "Justerini & Brooks Ltd | Royal Warrant Holders Association". www.royalwarrant.org. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  2. "Brand explorer". Diageo. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  3. "Our History". www.justerinis.com. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  4. "Justerini and Brooks Whisky". Master of Malt. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  5. "Justerini & Brooks - Our Royal Warrants". Justerinis.com. Archived from the original on 22 June 2012. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  6. Sims, Josh (4 March 2020). "Inside Justerini & Brooks' multi-million pound wine cellar". Luxury London. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  7. Andrew Ellson, Roll out the riesling, German wines are making a comeback, in: The Times dated 9 December 2019
  8. Dorling Kindersley Publishing Staff (April 2011). Great Whiskies. Dorling Kindersley Limited. ISBN 9781405360180.
  9. Mikel J. Koven, La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2006, pages 49-50.
  10. Easton Ellis, Bret (1991). American Psycho (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Contemporaries. p. 09/96. ISBN 0-679-73577-1.

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