Rare and selected Johnnie Walker Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
When it comes to blended whiskey from Scotland, most people immediately think of Johnnie Walker. Johnnie Walker is certainly the world s most famous brand and manufacturer for Blended Scotch Whiskey. In 1820 John Walker, after his father s death in 1819, sold the farm in Ayrshire, in the south-west of Scotland and opened a grocery store in Kilmarnock, near the Scottish west coast. After a while, John Walker started to sell whisky in his store, but the whiskys were generally not very pleasing at the time and were often characterized by an extreme character, which meant that the sales were initially limited. The Walker s Kilmarnock Whiskey offered by John Walker at the time does not change much, whether it was already a blended whiskey, is not known today, because only in 1860 was the sale of blended whisky permitted by a change of law, from then on also grain whiskys were allowed. When John Walker died in 1857, he left his descendants, Alexander Walker and Alexander Walker II the business and the whisky trade.
At that time in France destroyed the phylloxera between the years 1858 and 1863 nearly all the French viticulture, which led to the fact that almost the entire production of the brandy of wine came to a standstill, and the much-drunk cognac, but also wine and brandy, became much more expensive by this plague as a result of which the demand for whisky rose sharply and the whisky industry profited enormously. To address a broad customer base, the company began to blend some of the whiskys that were then produced in Scotland to create a softer and more pleasing whisky. After lengthy experiments came in 1865 a Blended Whisky with the name Walkers Old Highland on the market, this was offered from the year 1870 in the still used square bottle with an oblique label and provided for a sales disposition.
Due to the great success was expanded from 1880 worldwide, it opened stores in London, Sydney, South Africa and Birmingham, the Cardhu distillery was purchased in 1894 and the Talisker distillery was purchased in 1916. At the beginning of the 20th century the characteristic labels and color names were introduced for the whiskeys of different qualities, in 1908 the name was changed to Johnnie Walker Whisky, while at the same time the now iconic logo of the famous striding Man and the world famous slogan - Born 1820 - Still going Strong! - were introduced. Also the German slogan - The day goes, Johnnie Walker comes! - is now one of the most successful and best-known advertising slogans in German-speaking countries.
In 1925 the Distillers Company Ltd. (D.C.L.), which was founded in 1877, merged with John Walker and Sons. In 1987 D.C.L. and Arthur Bell and Sons merged into United Distillers. Together with the International Distillers and Vintners, they became the United Distillers and Vintners (UDV) in 1997 following the merger of the Guinness and GrandMet groups. Since 2002, the brand has been one of the world s largest spirits group, Diageo, and for a long time, Johnnie Walker has been the world s best-selling whisky - no less than 170 million bottles of the striding man were sold in 2012.
The majority of this is made by the standard whisky of the house, known as Red Label, which is blended from more than 35 malt and grain whiskys, including Whisky from Cardhu, Caol Ila and Talisker, and is by far the most sold whisky in the world!
In the next quality level, the Johnnie Walker Black Label, which is blended from at least twelve years old whiskys, including Caol Ila, Cameron Bridge and Glendullan. It is distinguished by a somewhat rounder and smoky taste and was considered the favorite whisky of Winston Churchill.
The Johnnie Walker Green Label was only launched in 1996 under the name of Pure Malt, since it is exclusively blended from the four malt whiskys Caol Ila, Linkwood, Cragganmore and Talisker, which must have a minimum age of 15 years. In 2004, the company was renamed to Green Label and its production ceased in 2012. Due to the high demand, however, Diageo decided in 2016 to resume production of the popular whisky.
A minimum age of 18 years has the 15 basic whiskys of the Johnnie Walker Gold Label, which is distinguished by its balanced sweetness and mild taste. The main ingredients are the whiskys of Royal Lochnagar, Talisker and Clynelish.
Since 1992, the Johnnie Walker Blue Label has been the top of the color series and each bottle is numbered individually. The Johnnie Walker Blue Label is the top whisky from the House Walker and shows the top performance of the blending. In order to give it the same style as the whiskys from the beginning of the 19th century, a number of the rarest barrels from the collection of Johnnie Walker, the largest in the world, were used during the creation. The Jonnie Walker is made from a blend of the 31 of the rarest whiskys. The barrels are selected by hand and kept separate for their outstanding quality, character and aroma.
On special occasions, Johnnie Walker also offers exclusive special bottlings such as The Casks Edition in Cask Strength with an increased alcohol content and numerous limited editions by hand individually numbered bottles in small editions of the Blue Label Blended Scotch Whisky, which are now among the most sought after specimens belong.
