JOHNNIE WALKER

JOHNNIE WALKER

Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch Whisky now owned by Diagio that
originated in the Scottish Burgh of Kilmarnok in East Ayrshire. The brand was
first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand
of blended Scotch whisky in the world, sold in almost every country, with annual
sales of the equivalent of over 223.7 million 700 ml bottles in 2016 (156.6 million
litres).

John Walker was born on 25 July 1805. His farmer father died in 1819, and the
family sold the farm. Their trustees invested the proceeds, £417, in an Italian
warehouse, grocery, and wine and spirits shop on the High Street in
Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland. Walker managed the grocery, wine, and spirits
segment as a teenager in 1820. The Excise Act of 1823 relaxed strict laws on
distillation of whisky and reduced, by a considerable amount, the extremely
heavy taxes on the distillation and sale of whisky. By 1825, Walker, a teetotaller,
was selling spirits, including rum, brandy, gin, and whisky.

In short order, he switched to dealing mainly in whisky. Since blending
of grain and malt whiskies was still banned, he sold both blended malt whiskies
and grain whiskies. They were sold as made-to-order whiskies, blended to meet
specific customer requirements, because he did not have any brand of his
own. He began using his name on labels years later, selling a blended malt
as Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky. John Walker died in 1857.

The brand became popular, but after Walker's death it was his son Alexander
‘Aler’ Walker and grandson Alexander Walker-II who were largely responsible
for establishing the whisky as a favoured brand. The Spirits Act of 1860 legalised
the blending of grain whiskies with malt whiskies and ushered in the modern era
of blended Scotch whisky. Blended Scotch whisky, lighter and sweeter in
character, was more accessible, and much more marketable to a wider
audience. Andrew Usher of Edinburg, was the first to produce a blended whisky,
but the Walkers followed in due course.

Alexander Walker had introduced the brand's signature square bottle in 1860.
This meant more bottles fitting the same space and fewer broken bottles. The
other identifying characteristic of the Johnnie Walker bottle was – and still is –
the label, which, since that year, is applied at an angle of 24 degrees upwards
left to right and allows text to be made larger and more visible. This also allowed
consumers to identify it at a distance. One major factor in his favour was the
arrival of a railway in Kilmarnock, carrying goods to merchant ships travelling the
world. Thanks to Alec's business acumen, sales of Walker's Kilmarnock reached
100,000 gallons (450,000 litres) per year by 1862.

In 1865, Alec created Johnnie Walker's first commercial blend and called it Old
Highland Whisky, before registering it as such in 1867.

Under John Walker, whisky sales represented eight 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.

In 1893, Cardhu Distillery was purchased by the Walkers to reinforce the stocks
of one of the Johnnie Walker blends' key malt whiskies. This move took the
Cardhu single malt out of the market and made it the exclusive preserve of the
Walkers. Cardhu's output was to become the heart of the Old Highland
Whisky and, subsequent to the rebranding of 1909, the prime single malt in
Johnnie Walker Red and Black Labels.

From 1906 to 1909, John's grandsons George and Alexander II expanded the line
and had three blended whiskies in the market, Old Highland at 5 years
old, Special Old Highland at 9 years old, and Extra Special Old Highland at 12
years old. These three brands had the standard Johnnie Walker labels, the only
difference being their colours: white, red, and black respectively. They were
commonly referred to in public by the colours of their labels. In 1909, as part of
a rebranding that saw the introduction of the Striding Man, a mascot used to
the present day that was created by cartoonist Tom Browne, the company re-
branded their blends to match the common colour names. The Old Highland was
renamed Johnnie Walker White Label, and made a 6-year-old, the Special Old
Highland became Johnnie Walker Red Label at 10 years old, and Extra Special
Old Highland was renamed Johnnie Walker Black Label, remaining 12 years old.

Sensing an opportunity to expand the scale and variety of their brands, Walker
acquired interests in Coleburn Distillery in 1915, quickly followed by Clynelish
Distillery Co. and Dailuaine-Talisker Co. in 1916. This ensured a steady supply of
single-malt whisky from the Cardhu, Coleburn, Clynelish, Talisker,
and Dailuaine distilleries. In 1923, Walker bought Mortlach Distillery, in
furtherance of their strategy. Most of their output was used in Johnnie Walker
blends, whose burgeoning popularity required increasingly vast volumes of
single malts.

Johnnie Walker White was dropped during World War-I. In 1932, Alexander II
added Johnnie Walker Swing to the line, the name originating from the unusual
shape of the bottle, which allowed it to rock back and forth.

The company joined Distillers Company in 1925. Distillers Company was
acquired by Guinness in 1986, and Guinness merged with Grand
Metropolitian to form Diageo in 1997. That year saw the introduction of the
blended malt, Johnnie Walker Pure Malt, renamed as Johnnie Walker Green
Label in 2004.

In July 2009, the brand's current owners, Diageo, decided to close all operations
in Kilmarnock by 2012. This met with backlash from local people, local
politicians, and then-First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond. Despite petitions,
public campaigns, and a large-scale march around Kilmarnock, Diageo
proceeded with the closure. The Johnnie Walker plant in Kilmarnock closed its
doors in March 2012 and the buildings were subsequently demolished a year
later.

In July 2020, Johnnie Walker announced plans to release a new environmentally-
friendly paper bottle set to debut in early 2021.

In October 2021, Johnnie Walker announced a new label, Jane Walker, created
by the distillery's first female master blender.

Get wide range of products from BOOZEHOUSE

Shop @ https://boozehouse.com.au/ for greater deals.