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Go Johnnie Walker is 200 years old. Ian Buxton

looks at the history of a whisky icon

Johnnie
go

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I
doubt if John Walker would recognise
the firm he first founded. Yet his name
lives on in the world’s best-selling
Scotch whisky.
With more than four bottles consumed
every single second, more than 10 million
cases of Johnnie Walker are sold every year
in more than 200 countries. Not bad for a 15
year old laddie, deemed too young to
manage a farm.
On July 25th this year, I’ll raise a glass to
John, the legend he created and the enduring
success story of Johnnie Walker. After all, it’s
the 200th anniversary of his birth and – in
many ways – the story of Walkers is the story
of Scotch.
As you probably know, this story began in
Kilmarnock, then the bustling centre of a
significant coal-mining industry. Like so
many whisky pioneers, the Walkers were
tenant farmers but, when John’s father
Alexander died, his executors determined
that his son should go into trade.
So an Italian warehouse, grocery and wine
and spirit business was purchased and, in
1820, the fledgling firm of John Walker was
founded. John Walker dropped his plough,
pulled on an apron and found himself
running a little grocer’s shop.
At the outset tea seems to have been more
important than whisky, though the skill of
blending is common to both and shrewd
trading an asset in any class of business.
The blending of grain and malt whisky
was unknown at this time or, to be more
accurate, it was illegal – which suggests it
was certainly known! Malt whiskies were
heavier, oilier, peatier and greatly more
Whisky legends
inconsistent than is the case today and grain
whisky often characterised by a burnt
flavour from the shallow stills employed by
the Lowland distillers.
The invention and development of the
continuous still by Stein and Coffey in the
1830s changed all that.
A lighter, more palatable and consistent
product was produced. John Walker began
blending these grain whiskies and a dynasty
was born.
It survived turbulent business conditions;
grew through the early Victorian era and
after literally being washed away in the great
Kilmarnock flood was rebuilt in 1852. It
survived John Walker’s death, in 1857, and
the transition to another tyro – Alexander,
John’s elder son. He was just 20 when the
responsibility for the family business was
thrust on him.
Then, his moment. In 1860 the law was
changed to permit the blending of grain and
malt whisky. Alexander acted, expanding
his general trading all the while.
In 1867 he copyrighted a design for
‘Walker’s Old Highland Whisky’, in a blend
we now know as Johnnie Walker Black
Label. Moreover, he packaged it with a
slanting black and gold label and a striking
square bottle. Sounds familiar? You’d
recognise it today, almost 140 years on.
Trade developed phenomenally in the late
nineteenth century, for Walkers and their
rivals. The British Empire was expanding;
Scotland was growing ever more
fashionable and Scotch was displacing
cognac as the drink of the smart set (thanks,
in part, to the efforts of the phylloxera vine
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Whisky legends
pest destroying French vineyards).
Alexander passed on the business to his
two sons George and Alexander junior in
1889. They evidently made up in confidence
what they lacked in years: advised by their
directors to consolidate and rein in the
business, they sacked them and proceeded
to expand dramatically.
No doubt they were impressed by the
success of their rivals Dewars, Buchanans
and the Distillers Company and no doubt
wiser men shook their grey hair at the
impetuosity of callow youth.
1893 saw a major change in strategy.
Hitherto, solely blenders and merchants,
Walkers acquired the Cardhu distillery on
Speyside. Now they were distillers – a
proud distinction – and immediately
proclaimed their confidence in ‘the precise
nature and quality of the principal
components of their blend.’
Beating the Distillers Company to the
hotly-contested prize of Cardhu only added
to the satisfaction.
But trade was not easy. The boom
conditions of the late 1890s overheated, as
booms are wont to, and 1898 saw the
collapse of Pattisons, the Enron of whisky.
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The loss of confidence and withdrawal of
credit following the trial of the Pattison
brothers had a big knock on effect and pulled
under at least nine other firms.
As one informed commentator remarked
of Robert and Walter Pattison as they were
led to gaol: “they infused into the trade a
reckless disregard of the most elementary
rules of sound business.”
Actually, they were crooks. But the
Walkers were made of sterner stuff.
Faced with an industry-wide crisis they
expanded – agents were appointed in South
Africa; the Australian business was
reorganised; competitors acquired and
London bonds and bottling works built.
The whiskies were still known as Walker’s
but, by 1909, new blends had been
introduced; the famous ‘Striding Man’
created and the foundations of the business
we know today were firmly laid. ‘Extra
Special Old Highland Whisky’ had evolved
into Johnnie Walker Black Label and ‘Special
Old Highland Whisky’ to Red Label.
More agents were appointed; more
markets conquered; distilleries were
purchased: the firm survived war, price-
cutting and tax increases. Output was
The view at Linkwood , one of
Johnnie Walker’s core malts
restricted, sales restricted to mere
allocations.
Discussions were held, then abandoned,
regarding a merger with Buchanan-Dewars
and the DCL. By 1925, though, the pressure
of trading conditions brought these three
houses together – Walkers days as an
independent were at an end.
The General Strike passed over; the
Depression came and went. The American
market succumbed to the madness of
Prohibition and, in consequence, rationing
became a thing of the past.
In 1929 a six-wheeler lorry was acquired
and the company newsletter observed that
“orders received in London office up to
4.30pm are delivered the following day”.
Little wonder: with America closed to
legitimate business there were a lot of sales
to make up and a lot of salesmen ready to
help out.
The restless and forceful Sir Alexander
Walker headed the firm at this time. He
continued to experiment with blending,
introducing ‘Swing’, a luxury blend
designed for the affluent customers of the
great Atlantic liners. It remains a favourite
today in Asian markets.
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Scribbling in his notebooks he left behind
tantalising hints of blends unrealised. They
passed to the archives, emerging only
occasionally as one-off special bottlings for
the directors and privileged friends.
But wait.
By 1945, Johnnie Walker Red Label was
the world’s best-selling Scotch whisky. DCL
re-organised; re-organised again and
emerged as Diageo. Red Label is still
number one.
The range of whiskies has expanded,
though. The ultra-luxury blend, Johnnie
Walker Blue, was introduced in 1992.
According to the marketing manuals it is
‘confident, intelligent, ambitious and
exclusive.’ It’s certainly expensive but, look
out, a £2,000 special edition Cask Strength
Blue Label is on the way.
I’d like to say it’s fabulous. That’s what I’d
like to say but, with just 4,000 bottles
available worldwide in a one-off celebration
of John Walker’s 200th, not a drop has
passed my lips.
It comes in a Baccarat crystal decanter, in a
soft blue leather box, with a limited edition
book. I didn’t write it, but I wish I had.
It doesn’t stop there. The blenders have
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excelled themselves with ‘1805’ – a 200 bottle
edition (correct, two hundred) of ultra-
premium extravagance, derived largely
from now silent stills.
This is to be found in a hand-made
Victorian style writing case, with antique nib
pen, a replica of Alexander Walker’s
blending book and a gold bust of John
Walker. It’s valued at £10,000 apparently.
Don’t bother reaching for your cheque
book. If you qualify, Walkers will give you
one. The snag is, you have to be one of ‘200
individuals deemed to have made the most
significant contribution to modern life.’
That’s going to be interesting. How do
they choose? Who gets to choose? What
qualifies you? What if you win and don’t
like whisky? How do you feel if you’re not
on the list? What if you’re 201st? This could
be trickier than it looks.
Back in the world of mortals, we find 12
year old Black Label, with its distinctively
smoky taste and the sophisticated Gold, an
indulgent 18 year old blend (‘dominant,
prestigious and luxurious’).
They got that from Alexander’s pocket
book. Nice one, Mr Archivist.
At 15 years old, Green Label is the new
Whisky legends
Below: Johnnie Walker Green Label; Left:
Cragganore and underneath it Caol ila, two of the
brand’s signature malts
vatted malt with a selection of vibrant 15-
year-old malts - selected for their intense
flavours and distinct tones. Ironically, Green
seems to fit better into this world of colours,
its signature malts Talisker, Cragganmore,
Linkwood and Caol Ila providing a fresh
and lively take on this new category.
Ninety-six years on even the Striding Man
appears in robust health. He seems to have
partially faded away in his latest incarnation
(I call him the Disappearing Striding Man)
but the swaggering style is still there.
Back in the roaring nineties (that’s the
1890s by the way), an Australian distributor
had the temerity to write to the first
Alexander Walker complaining that the
firm’s prices were too high to compete in the
general climate of discounting and cut-
throat competition. He was firmly rebuked.
“We are determined to make our whisky
so far as quality is concerned, of such a
standard that nothing in the market shall
come before it.”
It’s a fine motto. And it seems to have
worked. Wherever your journey takes you
you’ll find Johnnie Walker.
Happy Birthday Johnnie – for a lad from
Kilmarnock you’ve come a long way. I
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