Johnnie Walker

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For other uses, see Johnnie Walker (disambiguation).

Johnnie Walker

Type	Scotch whisky
Proof	80
Manufacturer	Diageo
Country of Origin	Kilmarnock, Scotland
Introduced	1820: Grocery store 1865: Scotch blending
Discontinued	White Label
Variants	Red Label, Black Label, Swing, Green Label, Gold Label, Blue Label
Related products	Chivas Regal, Cutty Sark

Johnnie Walker is a world famous brand of Scotch whisky produced in Kilmarnock, Scotland by Diageo plc.

Johnnie Walker continues to be blended in Kilmarnock, with a large plant just north of the town's railway station. The historic bonded warehouses and company offices (now local authority) can still be seen in Strand Street and John Finnie Street.

Johnnie Walker is currently the most widely distributed brand of Scotch whisky in the world, sold in over 200 countries with yearly sales of over 120 million bottles.

1 History
2 Blends
3 In popular culture
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 External links
7 References

[edit] History

Originally known as Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky, the brand is a legacy left by John ‘Johnnie’ Walker after he started to sell whisky in his grocer’s shop in Ayrshire, Scotland. The brand became popular, but it was his son Alexander Walker and grandson Alexander Walker II who were largely responsible for establishing the whisky as a widely popular brand.

Black Label and Green Label Pure Malt

Walker died in 1857, but his legacy was assured as the Walker family developed the business and grew the Johnnie Walker brand to become world famous.

Although he gave his name to the whisky, John Walker was a far less important figure to the brand than his son, Alexander. A disastrous flood in Kilmarnock in 1852 had destroyed all of Walker’s stock, and when Alexander joined the business in 1856, he persuaded his father to abandon the narrow realm of the grocery trade and to go into wholesale trading.
At the beginning, the firm offered a range of spirits: Campbeltown whisky from the Kintyre Peninsula; whisky from the Inner Hebridean Island of Islay, with its pungent smoky flavor; patent still, or grain, whisky; and “Glenlivat” (sic), Speyside whisky. Even so, whisky sales under John Walker represented just 8 percent of the firm’s income; by the time Alexander was ready to pass on the company to his own sons, that figure had increased to between 90 and 95 percent.

—Giles MacDonogh

[edit] Blends

Prior to 1860 it was illegal to blend malt and grain whisky. During that time John Walker sold a number of whiskys—notably his own Walker’s Kilmarnock.

In 1865 John’s son Alexander produced their first blend, Walker’s Old Highland.

From 1906–1909 John’s grandsons George and Alexander II expanded the line and introduced the color names. They dropped Johnnie Walker White during World War I. In 1932, Alexander II added Johnnie Walker Swing to the line.

The following table lists the various Johnnie Walker blends, by years of production, and from least expensive to most expensive.

Age	1865–1905	1906–1908	1909–1911	1932–1991	1992–1996	1997—
young (blended)		Old Highland	Johnnie Walker White Label
none given (blended)		Special Old Highland	Johnnie Walker Red Label
12 Y.O. (blended)	Walker’s Old Highland	Extra Special Old Highland	Johnnie Walker Black Label
17 Y.O. (blended)				Johnnie Walker Swing
15 Y.O. (vatted)						Johnnie Walker Pure Malt a.k.a. “Green Label”
18 Y.O. (blended)					Johnnie Walker Gold Label
Very Old (blended)					Johnnie Walker Blue Label

Johnnie Walker Red Label — a premium blend of grain whisky and malt whisky, it is the best selling whisky in the world and the only Johnnie Walker product marketed with mixing in mind.
Johnnie Walker Black Label — a deluxe blend of as many as 40 whiskies, each aged at least 12 years. Anecdotally, this was the favorite Scotch of Sir Winston Churchill.
Johnnie Walker Swing — named for the distinctive bottle, in which an irregular bottom allows it to rock back and forth. It was Alexander II’s last blend (gold & blue were based on his notes), and is very rare in the States.
Johnnie Walker Pure Malt (a.k.a. Green Label) — a vatted malt whisky that consists of a blend of approximately 15 individual single malts, the signature malts being Talisker, Cragganmore, Linkwood, and Caol Ila – Aged 15 years.

Johnnie Walker Gold Label — a rare deluxe blend of over 15 single malts that has at its heart the very rare Clynelish malt. This whisky was derived from original blending notes of Sir Alexander Walker, grandson of the company's founder. He desired to create an exceptional blend of mature malts to commemorate Johnnie Walker's centenary. His efforts were thwarted by a shortage of these malts following WWI. In 1950 the master blender who inherited Sir Alexander's notebooks desired to concoct a blend as a tribute to him using these notes, but was likewise hampered by supply issues following WWII. Now that Johnnie Walker has secured a limited stock of the very rare mature malts required, this centenary blend is finally available in the Gold Label.
Johnnie Walker Blue Label — Johnnie Walker's ultimate blend. Every bottle is serial numbered and sold in a silk-lined box, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. Although no age is declared, it is believed many of the whiskies blended are aged for 50 to 60 years.
Johnnie Walker Blue Label 200th Anniversary — 2005 saw Johnnie Walker's ultimate bottling of its ultimate blend. A special release of cask strength Blue Label, in a special square Baccarat crystal decanter. The decanter was packaged in a special silk-lined leather box with extra documentation. This was an extremely limited offer, and sold for around $4,000 a bottle.

[edit] In popular culture

Ron White drinks Johnnie Walker Black Label during his act.
In Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore a character appears named Johnnie Walker, his attire based on the red jacket, boots, cane, bowtie and hat worn by the character in the product's logo. Johnnie Walker is extremely popular in Japan.
A number of singers and songwriters have referenced Johnnie Walker in their works, including George Thorogood, Elliott Smith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Amanda Marshall, Leonard Cohen, and Jimmy Buffett.
Léon Gontran Damas, French Black poet of the Negritude literary movement, titled one of his poetry collection "Black-Label", after one of his poems describing his spleen and mild alcoholism.
Johnnie Walker sponsors the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team.
Toby Young blames Black Label for many of his misadventures in his memoir How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.
A bottle of Johnnie Walker is featured prominantly in the backdrop to the band on the Roger Waters Dark Side of The Moon Live Tour.
In the song "Miss Misery", Elliott Smith sings about Johnnie Walker Red: "I'll fake it through the day with some help from Johnnie Walker Red."
In the movie Starsky and Hutch, Ben Stiller's character utters the line: "Johnnie Red neat. Do it. Do it."
In the 1958 movie A Night to Remember, the Steward (Thomas Heathcote) is determined to finish off a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red, despite the peril of the ship.
In The West Wing episode "Bartlet for America", when Leo is flashing back to a meeting he had before Bartlet's first election, he speaks reverently of the age and taste of Johnnie Blue.
In the HBO series The Wire (season 3), Avon Barksdale and Russell Bell speak about the old days when they were dreaming of getting off of the streets over a couple glasses of Johnnie Walker Black Label over looking the Baltimore skyline.
In the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David buys his manager Jeff Green a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label for getting his wife Cheryl a part in The Vagina Monologues.
Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist Zakk Wylde named his heavy metal band Black Label Society after Johnnie Walker Black Label.

[edit] Trivia

In 2006, Johnnie Walker was in the news for a large ad hung on a building in Beirut, Lebanon. The ad showed sympathetic support for those enduring the damage to the country, without clarifying the cause of the plight. It was regarded by some as choosing a side in the conflict, since no similar ad was apparent in northern Israel. ^[1]

24 Degrees is the exact angle of the label on every bottle of Johnnie Walker sold since 1870, when Alexander Walker first introduced the revolutionary square bottle.

[edit] See also

Johnnie Walker Classic - a golf tournament played in the Asia-Pacific region
Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles - a golf tournament played in Scotland