Kate Riordan travels to Scotland to visit the home of Johnnie Walker and to celebrate their 100th anniversary blends her own whisky

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Johnnie Walker Black Label but the story goes much further back than that. John Walker – ‘Johnnie’ is an affectionate piece of early marketing – was born in Kilmarnock in 1805.

The man, the legend

The son of a dairy farmer, John started his career as a grocer in the 1820s. Though Johnnie Walker is rightly named after John, it was really his son Alexander who transformed the small family business into an international concern; ‘the real entrepreneur’ according to Williams.

Certainly he was well ahead of his time: it was under his stewardship that Johnnie Walker’s square bottle and distinctive slanted label were conceived (not only eye-catching, the 24˚ angle allowed for more letters of a bigger typeface to be visible).

In 1867 Alexander oversaw the launch of the company’s first blend, ‘Walker’s Old Highland Whisky’, complete with the smoky flavour that has become a brand trademark.

It was also Alexander who went to Glasgow’s shipping agents and ensured his whisky got on board ships sailing the busy tobacco route. He even sent his son Jack to Australia to check that the brand’s reputation for high quality was maintained in the New World.

The ‘Striding Man’ insignia, so closely associated with Johnnie Walker, and now evolved into a stylised series of bold brush strokes, came along in 1908. The Walker family were looking for a logo and decided to launch a competition to find one. The artist Tom Browne came up with the winning entry, an illustration of a well-dressed gentleman along with the words, ‘Johnnie Walker, born 1820, still going strong’. No-one seemed to mind that, with his natty red jacket and highly polished boots, the Striding Man looked rather more like an English dandy than a Scottish whisky distiller.

The Coloured Labels

Another stroke of marketing genius is Johnnie Walker’s coloured labels. Though Black is more expensive than Red, Green more expensive than Black, and Blue and Gold more exclusive still, the standard of quality across the board means that connoisseurs like Williams prefer a Red and Cola on an ordinary evening and save Blue for a special occasion. Williams is keen to emphasise how accessible whisky can be. It can – and should – be drunk just however you please, whether neat, in a cocktail, with a fizzy mixer, a hunk of ice or simply water (as long as it’s spring water, not tap).

Arguably, Black Label constitutes the classic Johnnie Walker whisky; Winston Churchill certainly thought so – it was his favourite. It’s a highly sophisticated blend of more than 40 different whiskies, all of them aged for at least 12 years. Williams puts it best, describing it as ‘the whole Scotch whisky industry in a bottle, it’s so complex’. Even my untutored palate can appreciate its rich, smooth warmth and clean aftertaste. The experts will tell you that the fruity notes come from the Glendullan single malt while Cameron Brig brings soft vanilla to the mix. Talisker adds its characteristic earthy smokiness. Simply put, Black Label has a complexity that the single malts can’t compete with – and it’s more affordable than many of them, too.

The Art of Distillation and Blending

At Cardhu there are around 10,000 casks, all safely under lock and key. They are kept in dim light and cool temperatures, in a mixture of American white oak bourbon and European sherry casks (reusing barrels is the norm). While the whisky matures, the barrel confers its own flavours and colours: the bourbon casks produce a paler spirit that allows the flavours of the whisky to shine through. The sherry casks provide a deeper, denser flavour and colour. Williams compares the two succinctly: ‘it’s fresh fruits versus dried fruits’.

But this is the final stage of production. In the main part of the distillery, a great deal of effort goes into producing the whisky languishing in all those barrels. You can smell the fermenting liquid outside, a warm current in the crisp Scottish air. But it really hits you when you enter the Mash Room: slightly sweet, yeasty and filling. This is where the grain is mashed; the spent grain, called ‘draff’, is used as cattle feed. ‘We’re Scots,’ says Williams. ‘We don’t chuck it away.’

The fermentation process is like that of beer, and the faster it’s done (say, 50 hours) the more nutty and spicy the result. At Cardhu, they let it ferment for 72 hours, producing something lighter, more floral. Then comes the first distillation, where the evaporated alcohol collected is called the ‘low wines’. The second distillation bolsters the liquid’s strength and purity. Whisky production has its own fascinating language: the ‘foreshots’ and ‘feints’ that are created during distillation; the huge wooden ‘wash backs’ and ‘mash tuns’, the gorgeous copper ‘stills’, and the man who attends them the ‘stillman’.

I get my own chance to blend after learning how the experts do it. Williams has laid out five different malts and a single grain (remember that Black Label contains more than 40) in what looks like a science lab. Among my options are a 15-year-old Speyside malt, aged in a sherry cask with lots of rich, woody notes, and a pale, mossy 12-year-old Islay. 

The malts and grain bind together to create blended whisky. After 10 minutes of decidedly unprofessional blending (and spilling), I’m done. My plan was to offset the Islay’s antiseptic tang with the fresh, green notes of a Speyside 12-year-old and then soften the whole thing up with the honey flavours of another 15-year-old. Ian gamely offers to taste it but, after a sniff, wisely adds a little water. He rolls my own, entirely unique blend contemplatively around his mouth and finally swallows. ‘That’s actually very nice,’ he says, evidently as surprised by that fact as me.

Win!

To celebrate Johnnie Walker’s 100th anniversary and to celebrate their partnership with the McLaren Mercedes Formula One team we are giving away an F1 helmet, signed by Lewis Hamilton and presented on a carbon fibre plinth. It comes complete with a certificate of authenticity. There are also two runners up prizes of half size helmets also signed by Hamilton and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. Just answer this question: Where is the ‘spiritual home’ of Johnnie Walker? Enter at highlifeshop.com/johnniewalker. Terms and conditions apply, please see website for full details. Closing date for the receipt of all entries is 31 December 2009.

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