Home/The Whiskey Emporium/The Scotch Whiskey Emporium
  • 48cm x 38cm
    Black & White
    Blackwhitewhiskey.jpg
    The label of Black & White, featuring a Scottie and a Westie
    Type Scotch whisky
    Manufacturer Diageo
    Country of origin Scotland
    Introduced 1879
    Alcohol by volume 40%
    Black & White Whisky Drey, Riverside Museum, Glasgow
    "James Buchanan & Co., Ltd. 1908 ad from the United States
    Black & White is a blended Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was originally produced by the London-based James Buchanan & Co Ltd, which was founded by James Buchanan. When was first made in 1879 was Initially known as Buchanan's Blend and then House of Commons (after the British House of Commons), its nickname, referring to the black and white labelling, was eventually adopted as the official brand instead.[1] The brand's motif (featuring a black Scottish Terrier and a white West Highland White Terrier) was conceived by James Buchanan during the 1890s.[2] In 1968, the Black & White brand featured in an important trademark infringement case, Maier Brewing Co. v. Fleischmann Distilling Corp., 390 F.2d 117 (9th Cir. 1968), when a brewing company started manufacturing beer under the brand name "Black and White". After a series of mergers and acquisitions involving Dewar's (1915), Distillers Company, and Guinness (forming United Distillers), the brand is now owned by Diageo. It claims to be the most successful in France, Venezuela, and Brazil.At present, the brand is sold only outside the United Kingdom.

    In popular culture

    • In Cheers season 6 episode 5 "The Crane Mutiny", Frasier orders a scotch, and Woody pours him a Black & White on the rocks.
    • In his 1928 sonnet Huppy: The Life o' Riley, American war poet John Allan Wyeth describes an incident that took place in the French village of the same name, where Wyeth was serving with the 33rd U.S. Division during World War I. It was sometime between June 1 and 8, 1918. While on a nighttime carouse with his fellow Doughboys, Lt. Wyeth and his buddies found a village café and marched inside over the protests of the proprietress, who insisted that her place of business was closed. One of the soldiers replied, "Allez toot sweet," (Allez tout de suite means, "Go right away"), "to hell!" One of the soldiers ordered Black and White Scotch whisky. As the proprietress obliged, another Doughboy launched into a rendition of the new song, "You're in the Army Now".
    • A bottle is seen on a table in a bar somewhere in the Congo in Tarzan Escapes (1936).
    • Dick Diver, the main character in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1934 novel, Tender is the Night, orders "The Blackenwite with siphon", symbolising clarity, but the French barman only has "Johnny Walkair", symbolising business as usual. He is later reported to smell of whiskey rather than whisky.
    • James Bond drinks Black & White in the Ian Fleming novel Moonraker.
    • James Bond shares a bottle with Felix Leiter and Quarrel in Pussfella's Bar in the 1962 film Dr. No.
    • In the novel, Scruffy by Paul Gallico, a case of Black & White Scotch is the price the British must pay a Spaniard for his female Barbary ape as OIC Apes Maj. Tim Bailey and the MI-5 boffins strive to ensure Churchill’s (true) order that the ape packs be kept up to strength.
    • Tom Rath drinks Black & White in the Sloan Wilson novel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.
    • Black & White is the whisky Cary Grant was fond of in the 1964 movie Father Goose.
    • Marcello Mastroianni drank Black & White with his father, his lady friend, and Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso) (Paparazzo actually placed the order for the bottle of Black & White) in the Fellini classic film La Dolce Vita.
    • In Some Girls Do (1969), the British spy film, Bulldog Drummond (played by Richard Johnson) orders Black & White with water several times.
    • Physicist Richard Feynman drank Black & White, as described in his book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!.
    • Herbert Kilpin, co-founder and first captain of football club AC Milan, claimed that "the only way to forget a conceded goal was to drink a sip of the hard stuff"; he reportedly kept a bottle of Black & White whisky in a hole behind the goal for such an occasion.
    • Black & White whisky was featured in the film Dolores Claiborne.
    • The drink is featured in the novel Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, in which the narrator orders a Black & White and water.
    • One of the biggest hits of the Polish band Kombi is dedicated to and titled "Black & White".
    • In the early opening credits of the Alfred Zeisler movie The Amazing Adventure (1936), and Louis King's Bulldog Drummond in Africa(1938), a neon sign can be briefly seen advertising Black & White whisky in the evening London cityscape.
    • In the Czech movie Kamarád do deště II – Příběh z Brooklynu a bottle of this whisky was present in the hotel room and later Marek Vašut took it home.
    • Frasier Crane's friend Dr. Lawrence Crandell orders a Black & White neat in season 7 episode 22 of Cheers. However, due to continuity error (most likely), it was served over rocks.
    • When the antagonist in Paul Auster's 1986 novella, Ghosts (which was published as the second part of Auster's The New York Trilogy), orders a Black and White on the rocks, he is effectively revealing his identity to the novella's protagonist.
    • Walt Disney reportedly ended his work days with one of his favorite cocktails, a Scotch Mist: Black & White poured over crushed ice with a lemon twist
    • Along with Haig, Black & White was a favorite Scotch whisky of Dean Martin.
    • Black & White was the favorite Whisky of Ludwig Erhard, the second chancellor of the German Federal Republic.
    • In the 1972 French movie The Pebbles of Étretat, actor Maurice Ronet can be seen pouring a bottle of Black & White into a glass at 33:55.
    • In the 1969 movie Monte Carlo or Bust!, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore have their Black and White Scotch confiscated at approximately 1:01:00 into the movie.
    • In the 1977 French movie The Apprentice Heel, a bottle of Black and White Scotch can be seen being poured at 58:35.
    • In the 1969 French movie The Appointment, a Black and White Scotch logo can be seen above the bar at 1:52.
    • Black and White whisky figures prominently in the 1984 Malayalam (Indian) movie "Bharya Oru Devatha"
    • In the 1969 BBC Monaco Grand Prix documentary entitled "Wheelbase", an advertisement for Black and White can be seen at the exit of the tunnel at 21:27
     
  • 53cm x 53cm  Belfast Clan Campbell whisky originated around 1937 when Forbes Macgregor & Company changed their name to S. Campbell & Son. A relative newcomer as far as blends go but none the less it is still an excellent quality blended whisky. The whisky takes it name from the Clan Campbell which is one of the most renowned clans, under its chief the Duke of Argyle. Clan Campbell whisky contains at least 30 percent malt of which the majority is Speyside malts with Aberlour being a major contributor. It is a very well rounded blend with pleasurable hints of the delightfully smooth aromatic Aberlour malt.
  • Excellent example of a Cutty Sark Scotch Whisky Mirror featuring the brands distinctive trademark-the clipper ship 'Cutty Sark'. Cutty Sark is a range of blended Scotch whisky produced by La Martiniquaise. The whisky was created on 23 March 1923 as a product of Berry Bros. & Rudd, with the home of the blend considered to be at The Glenrothes distillery in the Speyside region of Scotland. The name comes from the River Clyde–built clipper ship Cutty Sark, whose name came from the Scots language term "cutty-sark", the short shirt [skirt] prominently mentioned in the famous poem by Robert Burns, "Tam o' Shanter". The drawing of the clipper ship Cutty Sark on the label of the whisky bottles is a work of the Swedishartist Carl Georg August Wallin. He was a mariner painter, and this is probably his most famous ship painting. This drawing has been on the whisky bottles since 1955. The Tall Ships' Races for large sailing ships were originally known as The Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Races, under the terms of sponsorship by the whisky brand.

    US distribution

    Cutty Sark was originally distributed in the United States by Buckingham Co.,which was acquired by Allied Lyons (later Allied Domecq) in 1989.Skyy Spirits bought the distribution rights from Allied Domeq in 1999.After Edrington acquired the brand, it switched US distribution from Skyy to Rémy Cointreau USA. Edrington launched its own distribution unit in the US in 2014.

    Bottlings

    The most popular member of the range, Cutty Sark Original Scots Whisky, is sold in a distinctive green bottle with a yellow label. The range also includes other blends, and premium blends, currently identified by the age of the youngest whisky in the blending

    Reviews

    Cutty Sark has received modest reviews from international spirit ratings organisations. In 2008, 2009, and 2011 for example, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition awarded the Cutty Sark blended scotch bronze and silver medals. The Beverage Testing Institute gave Cutty Sark modest scores of 85 and 87 in 2008 and 2011, respectively.

    Cutty Sark in modern fiction

    Billie, one of the go go dancers from the film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! by Russ Meyer gets drunk with a bottle of Cutty Sark during lunch at the California desert. Cutty Sark makes an appearance in many novels by Haruki Murakami, most notably The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84, and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. It is a character's favourite drink in the 1978 novel The Human Factor by Graham Greene. Cutty Sark is one time favourite drink of Clive Cussler's hero Dirk Pitt and also of Cussler himself, who is featured as a bit character in most of his novels. A bottle of Cutty Sark vintage 1985 is mentioned to be worth a fortune in science fiction novel Lies, Inc. by Philip K. Dick. In Yukio Mishima's 1971 novel The Decay of the Angel, Cutty Sark is the whiskey of choice for Honda, the main character. James Hadley Chase refers to Cutty Sark in several of his crime novels. In the second part of the 2009 novel Invisible by Paul Auster, the protagonist Adam Walker serves Cutty Sark on ice to his sister Gwyn, just before supposedly seducing her. Cutty Sark is often referenced by the main character in Thomas Sherry's novel, Deep Winter. Rick Drummond keeps a bottle at hand for very special occasions. Other characters immediately recognise how valuable the bottle is when supplies soon become scarce. In Stephen King's short story "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands", published in his collection of short stories Skeleton Crew, the narrator and his friends drink Cutty Sark as they play poker. Cutty Sark featured in the film Pawn Sacrifice (starring Tobey Maguire as Bobby Fischer and Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky). In the film The Associate, Whoopi Goldberg plays character Laurel Ayres who has to quickly create a fictional white man's name. She is inspired by a bottle of Cutty Sark and uses the name Robert S. Cutty. Cutty Sark is featured in the film Green Book, in which the character Don Shirley, played by Mahershala Ali, requires that his driver/bodyguard, Tony "Lip" Vallelonga, played by Viggo Mortensen, makes sure that a bottle of Cutty Sark is made available daily in his sleeping quarters. Don is seen frequently taking a drink from this bottle. Cutty Sark is the mentioned in Gary Paulsen's young adult novel, The Crossing, which tells the story of an alcoholic sergeant who helps a young boy immigrate to El Paso. Cutty Sark also features in the film Goodfellas as cases of it are transported from the back of a truck into a restaurant. Joe Pesci orders a Cutty and water from Spider while playing cards just before shooting Spider in the foot. Joe Grivasi orders "Two Cuttys neat with water backs" for he and James Caan in the film Hide in Plain Sight. Cutty Sark is drunk in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 2 episode "The Gang Runs for Office". "Cutty Sark" is the title of a long section of Hart Crane's poem sequence "The Bridge". In the poem the poet drinks whiskey with a sailor and traveler at a bar in Manhattan, then walks home across Brooklyn Bridge. In the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone, at 1:22:58 during a scene titled by Miramax as "Bressant's Last Stand", Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) are interrogating Lionel McCready (Titus Welliver) at the bar Murphy's Law in Boston. When the interrogation becomes heated, Lionel (Welliver), slams his fist down on the table at which he is sitting and demands service; to the responding waitress he asks of "three shots of Cutty and a tallboy". Cutty 12 makes an appearance in Mad Men season 7, Episode 2 "A Day's Work" when Pete pours a glass after a phone call. Cutty Sark features throughout the 2018 film Green Book where the lead character Don Shirley requests a bottle to be in his room every night. Mayans MC, S2 Ep8, TV show, "a 5th of Cutty" mentioned by main FBI agent Proctor, as his dad's drink of choice. Psych S3 Ep.4, "The Greatest Adventure in the History of Basic Cable" Uncle Jack states "It's a long story; a one-legged woman, bottle of Cutty Sark." Trying to explain why a piece of his treasure map is missing. Cutty Sark was the name of writer Elena Passarello's family cat Origins;Co Clare Dimensions : 50cm x 40cm
  • e famed brand, Dewar’s was established in 1846 by John Dewar Sr as a wine and spirits merchant on Perth High Street. John sold blended whisky with his own name on the bottles, a rare thing at the time and it was not long before he was supplying bars and hotels throughout Scotland with his product. John’s son, John Alexander Dewar, joined the business in 1871, becoming a partner eight years later. John Alexander inherited the business following his father’s death in 1880. Thomas ‘Tommy’ Dewar joined the business in 1884 and the brand was quickly expanded, starting with a serious introduction to the London market. Dewar’s was introduced to the American market in style, for in 1891 their whisky was delivered to the White House when Andrew Carnegie ordered a keg for President Benjamin Harrison. The President was later criticized for not supporting American products. The American subsequent demand was impressive. In 1893, Queen Victoria bestowed a Royal Warrant, indeed Dewar’s has received a Royal Warrant from every British monarch since. The regal involvement continued for in 1902, Tommy Dewar was knighted by King Edward VI. Today, Dewar’s own five distilleries, including Aberfeldy which the company built in 1896. The company also have a range of popular blends including Dewar’s White Label, an amalgam of around forty single malt Scotch whiskies. Origins:Co Louth Dimensions:33cm x 25cm
  • Beautifully framed Johnnie Walker Scotch Whiskey Mirror. Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock 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).

    History

    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.
    Alexander Walker, son of John Walker, inherited the business following his father's death.
    The brand became popular, but after Walker's death it was his son Alexander ‘Alec’ 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 Edinburgh, 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 Metropolitan 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 2009, the brand's owners, Diageo, decided to close all operations in Kilmarnock. 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.

    Blends

    For most of its history Johnnie Walker only offered a few blends. Since the turn of the century, there has been a spate of special and limited bottlings.
    A variety of blends
    • Red Label: A non-age-stated blend. It has been the best selling Scotch whisky in the world since 1945.It is primarily used for making mixed drinks.
    • Black Label: Aged 12 years, it is one of the world's best-selling Scotch whiskies.
    • Double Black Label: Made available for general release in 2011 after a successful launch in travel retail.The whisky was created taking Black Label as a blueprint, adding more peaty malt whiskies to it and maturing it in heavily charred old oak casks.
    • Green Label: First introduced in 1997 as Johnnie Walker Pure Malt 15 Year Old,it was renamed Johnnie Walker Green Label in 2004. Green Label is a blended malt whisky, meaning it is made by mixing single malts with no grain whisky added.All whiskies used are a minimum of 15 years old.Diageo discontinued Green Label globally in 2012 (except for Taiwan, where demand for blended malts is very strong), as part of a reconstruction of the range that saw the introduction of Gold Label Reserve and Platinum Label. The brand was reintroduced in 2016 and is again globally available.
    • Gold Label: A blend of over 15 single malts, it was derived from Alexander Walker II's blending notes for a whisky to commemorate Johnnie Walker's centenary. Originally, Gold Label was bottled at 18 years and labelled "The Centenary blend".In 2013, Gold Label was renamed "Gold Label Reserve", and now carries no age statement.
    • Aged 18 Years: Originally introduced as Platinum Label, it was introduced to replace the original Gold Label in the Asian market, and sold alongside Gold Label Reserve. Though still available around the globe, the Platinum Label name was discontinued in mid-2017 and replaced by Johnnie Walker Aged 18 Years. The two are identical except for the label.
    Johnnie Walker Blue label bottle in a gift box
    • Blue Label: Johnnie Walker's premium blend. Johnnie Walker Blue Label is blended to recreate the character and taste of some of the earliest whisky blends created in the 19th century.[39] It bears no age statement. Bottles are numbered serially and sold in a silk-lined box accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. It is one of the most expensive blended Scotch whiskies on the market, with prices in the range of US$174–450.Over 25 Limited Editions have been released to date.
    • Johnnie Walker Swing: Supplied in a distinctive bottle whose irregular bottom allows it to rock back and forth. This type of bottle design was originally used aboard sailing ships. It was Alexander Walker II's last blend: it features a high proportion of Speyside malts, complemented by malts from the northern Highlands and Islay.
    The Walkers created their primary marketing strategy in 1908 with advertisements featuring Browne's Striding Man, using the slogan, "Johnnie Walker: Born 1820, still going strong". Photographs replaced the drawings in the 1930s, and the Striding Man was miniaturised to a coloured logo in 1939; it first appeared on the Johnnie Walker labels in 1960. In the late 1990s, the direction of the Striding Man was reversed as part of a "Keep Walking" campaign. The Striding Man icon was most recently redrawn in 2015. In 2009, the advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) created a new short film, starring Robert Carlyle and directed by Jamie Rafn, titled The Man Who Walked Around the World, which outlined the history of the Johnnie Walker brand. Johnnie Walker also launched the international John Walker & Sons Voyager tour in order to market its higher variants in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and Caribbean markets. The Voyager tour was developed in order to promote the special edition Odyssey blend and pay tribute to the original trade routes and sea voyages by which Johnnie Walker was distributed throughout the world. In October 2018, Diageo teamed with HBO to produce "White Walker by Johnnie Walker" whisky, inspired by the army of the undead in the TV series Game of Thrones as part of the marketing for the series' final season.[45] Diageo then released a collection of Game of Thrones–inspired single malt whiskies, followed by two more whiskies by Johnnie Walker in mid-2019.

    Accolades

    Johnnie Walker spirits have received strong scores at international spirit ratings competitions and from liquor review bodies. The Green Label received a string of three double gold medals from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition between 2005 and 2007. The Gold Label received double gold medals from the San Francisco competition in 2008 and 2009 and won a gold in 2010. Spirits ratings aggregator proof66.com, which averages scores from the San Francisco Spirits Competition, Wine Enthusiast, and others, puts the Black, Blue, Gold and Green Labels in its highest performance category ("Tier 1" Spirits).Johnnie Walker spirits have several times taken part in the Monde Selection's World Quality Selections and have received a Gold and Grand Gold Quality Award. Johnnie Walker was voted India's Most Trusted Premium Whisky Brand according to the Brand Trust Report 2014, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory.Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve won the World's Best Blended -- Best Scotch Blended in World Whiskies Awards 2018.

    Sponsorships

    Johnnie Walker is the official whisky of Formula One,and are a sponsor of two F1 teams McLaren and Racing Point. Johnnie Walker is also the title namesake for the F1 Grand Prix race in Spa Belgium. Johnnie Walker sponsored the Johnnie Walker Classic, an Asia-Pacific golf tournament, up to 2009 and the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, a golf tournament in Scotland up to 2013.Diageo sold the Gleneagles Hotel and Golf Course, the site of the tournament, mid-2015 to focus on its core business.

    Cultural figures

    Winston Churchill's favourite whisky was Johnnie Walker Red Label, which he mixed with water and drank throughout the day. Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens was partial to Johnnie Walker Black Label cut with Perrier and referred to it as "Mr Walker's Amber Restorative". Johnnie Walker Blue Label was a favourite of the late US president Richard Nixon's; Nixon used to enjoy it with ginger ale and a wedge of lime. A number of singers and songwriters have referenced Johnnie Walker in their works, from Amanda Marshall to ZZ Top.Elliott Smith's Oscar-nominated "Miss Misery" has the narrator "[making] it through the day with some help from Johnnie Walker Red." Heavy metal band Black Label Society was named after Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky, as Zakk Wylde was very fond of the drink. George Thorogood name checks “Johnny Walker and his brothers Black and Red” in "I Drink Alone". Polish fictional humorous character Jakub Wędrowycz is a word play based on Polish translation of "Johny Walker".

    Gallery

  • Classy Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky Mirror.
    Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock 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).

    History

    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.
    Alexander Walker, son of John Walker, inherited the business following his father's death.
    The brand became popular, but after Walker's death it was his son Alexander ‘Alec’ 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 Edinburgh, 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 Metropolitan 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 2009, the brand's owners, Diageo, decided to close all operations in Kilmarnock. 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.

    Blends

    For most of its history Johnnie Walker only offered a few blends. Since the turn of the century, there has been a spate of special and limited bottlings.
    A variety of blends
    • Red Label: A non-age-stated blend. It has been the best selling Scotch whisky in the world since 1945.It is primarily used for making mixed drinks.
    • Black Label: Aged 12 years, it is one of the world's best-selling Scotch whiskies.
    • Double Black Label: Made available for general release in 2011 after a successful launch in travel retail.The whisky was created taking Black Label as a blueprint, adding more peaty malt whiskies to it and maturing it in heavily charred old oak casks.
    • Green Label: First introduced in 1997 as Johnnie Walker Pure Malt 15 Year Old,it was renamed Johnnie Walker Green Label in 2004. Green Label is a blended malt whisky, meaning it is made by mixing single malts with no grain whisky added.All whiskies used are a minimum of 15 years old.Diageo discontinued Green Label globally in 2012 (except for Taiwan, where demand for blended malts is very strong), as part of a reconstruction of the range that saw the introduction of Gold Label Reserve and Platinum Label. The brand was reintroduced in 2016 and is again globally available.
    • Gold Label: A blend of over 15 single malts, it was derived from Alexander Walker II's blending notes for a whisky to commemorate Johnnie Walker's centenary. Originally, Gold Label was bottled at 18 years and labelled "The Centenary blend".In 2013, Gold Label was renamed "Gold Label Reserve", and now carries no age statement.
    • Aged 18 Years: Originally introduced as Platinum Label, it was introduced to replace the original Gold Label in the Asian market, and sold alongside Gold Label Reserve. Though still available around the globe, the Platinum Label name was discontinued in mid-2017 and replaced by Johnnie Walker Aged 18 Years. The two are identical except for the label.
    Johnnie Walker Blue label bottle in a gift box
    • Blue Label: Johnnie Walker's premium blend. Johnnie Walker Blue Label is blended to recreate the character and taste of some of the earliest whisky blends created in the 19th century.[39] It bears no age statement. Bottles are numbered serially and sold in a silk-lined box accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. It is one of the most expensive blended Scotch whiskies on the market, with prices in the range of US$174–450.Over 25 Limited Editions have been released to date.
    • Johnnie Walker Swing: Supplied in a distinctive bottle whose irregular bottom allows it to rock back and forth. This type of bottle design was originally used aboard sailing ships. It was Alexander Walker II's last blend: it features a high proportion of Speyside malts, complemented by malts from the northern Highlands and Islay.
    The Walkers created their primary marketing strategy in 1908 with advertisements featuring Browne's Striding Man, using the slogan, "Johnnie Walker: Born 1820, still going strong". Photographs replaced the drawings in the 1930s, and the Striding Man was miniaturised to a coloured logo in 1939; it first appeared on the Johnnie Walker labels in 1960. In the late 1990s, the direction of the Striding Man was reversed as part of a "Keep Walking" campaign. The Striding Man icon was most recently redrawn in 2015. In 2009, the advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) created a new short film, starring Robert Carlyle and directed by Jamie Rafn, titled The Man Who Walked Around the World, which outlined the history of the Johnnie Walker brand. Johnnie Walker also launched the international John Walker & Sons Voyager tour in order to market its higher variants in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and Caribbean markets. The Voyager tour was developed in order to promote the special edition Odyssey blend and pay tribute to the original trade routes and sea voyages by which Johnnie Walker was distributed throughout the world. In October 2018, Diageo teamed with HBO to produce "White Walker by Johnnie Walker" whisky, inspired by the army of the undead in the TV series Game of Thrones as part of the marketing for the series' final season.[45] Diageo then released a collection of Game of Thrones–inspired single malt whiskies, followed by two more whiskies by Johnnie Walker in mid-2019.

    Accolades

    Johnnie Walker spirits have received strong scores at international spirit ratings competitions and from liquor review bodies. The Green Label received a string of three double gold medals from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition between 2005 and 2007. The Gold Label received double gold medals from the San Francisco competition in 2008 and 2009 and won a gold in 2010. Spirits ratings aggregator proof66.com, which averages scores from the San Francisco Spirits Competition, Wine Enthusiast, and others, puts the Black, Blue, Gold and Green Labels in its highest performance category ("Tier 1" Spirits).Johnnie Walker spirits have several times taken part in the Monde Selection's World Quality Selections and have received a Gold and Grand Gold Quality Award. Johnnie Walker was voted India's Most Trusted Premium Whisky Brand according to the Brand Trust Report 2014, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory.Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve won the World's Best Blended -- Best Scotch Blended in World Whiskies Awards 2018.

    Sponsorships

    Johnnie Walker is the official whisky of Formula One,and are a sponsor of two F1 teams McLaren and Racing Point. Johnnie Walker is also the title namesake for the F1 Grand Prix race in Spa Belgium. Johnnie Walker sponsored the Johnnie Walker Classic, an Asia-Pacific golf tournament, up to 2009 and the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, a golf tournament in Scotland up to 2013.Diageo sold the Gleneagles Hotel and Golf Course, the site of the tournament, mid-2015 to focus on its core business.

    Cultural figures

    Winston Churchill's favourite whisky was Johnnie Walker Red Label, which he mixed with water and drank throughout the day. Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens was partial to Johnnie Walker Black Label cut with Perrier and referred to it as "Mr Walker's Amber Restorative". Johnnie Walker Blue Label was a favourite of the late US president Richard Nixon's; Nixon used to enjoy it with ginger ale and a wedge of lime. A number of singers and songwriters have referenced Johnnie Walker in their works, from Amanda Marshall to ZZ Top.Elliott Smith's Oscar-nominated "Miss Misery" has the narrator "[making] it through the day with some help from Johnnie Walker Red." Heavy metal band Black Label Society was named after Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky, as Zakk Wylde was very fond of the drink. George Thorogood name checks “Johnny Walker and his brothers Black and Red” in "I Drink Alone". Polish fictional humorous character Jakub Wędrowycz is a word play based on Polish translation of "Johny Walker".

    Gallery

  • Petite 1970s Tennants Lager Mirror. 25cm x 20cm  

    Tennent's History

     
    1556

    Although founded as ‘H&R Tennent’, by Hugh and Robert Tennent, brewing had been taking place at the same site on the banks of the Molendinar Burn since 1556, making it the oldest continuous commercial concern in Glasgow.
     
    1740

    Originally known as the Drygate Brewery, Wellpark Brewery was established in 1740 at Drygate Bridge, near Glasgow Cathedral.
     
    1769

    Hugh Tennent’s sons, John and Robert, continued the family business, trading as J&R Tennent from 1769. The business expanded in the 1790s when the Tennent family purchased the neighbouring brewery of William McLehose, and renamed the 5-acre (20,000 m2) site, Wellpark Brewery.
     
    1827

    The firm originally brewed stout and strong export ales. By the mid-19th century J&R Tennent was the world’s largest bottled beer exporter. Robert Tennent died in 1826 and John Tennent in 1827.
     
    1864

    Hugh Tennent (eldest son of Robert) assumed control of the business. Hugh Tennent retired in 1855 with his fifth son, Charles Tennent, taking over, but he died in 1864, some months before his father. The brewery was subsequently operated by trustees on behalf of Charles Tennent’s sons, Archibald and Hugh.
     
    1884

    In 1884 Hugh Tennent took control of the company and first brewed Tennent’s lager in 1885. He later built a new lager brewery on the Wellpark site, which was begun in 1889 and completed in 1891. J&R Tennent produced the first draught lager in 1924, the first canned lager in 1935 and the first keg lager in 1963.
     
    1963

    J&R Tennent was acquired by Charrington United Breweries in 1963, and in 1966 formally merged with United Caledonian Breweries, Charrington’s other Scottish subsidiary, to form Tennent Caledonian Breweries. The new company’s brewing was concentrated at the Wellpark Brewery and the Heriot Brewery in Edinburgh.
     
    1965

    In 1967, Charringtons merged with Bass to form the Bass Charrington Group. It was later bought by the Belgian brewer Interbrew (now InBev) in June 2000, which became part of Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2008.
    1965

    Wellpark was redeveloped between 1965 and 1968 but Heriot was demolished in the 1990s.
     
    2009

    C&C Group plc announced a deal to buy the brewery and the Tennent’s brand from AB-InBev in August 2009.
     
    2014
    In May 2014, C&C Group and Williams Bros Brewing Co opened a craft brewery joint venture on the site, called Drygate Brewing Co.
    Origins ;Co Kildare
    Dimensions:
  • Teachers Scotch Whiskey Retro advert fashioned from the blood, sweat,tears and spillage of a well used Irish Bar Tray & enamel advertising signs.Using high quality reprographics we have brought every scratch,dent and mark back to life in the shape of this unique series of prints. Dimensions :35cm x 48cm  Glazed The Teacher's Highland Cream brand was first registered in 1884. (The label on the bottles says "est. 1830", reflecting an earlier date when the founding family entered the whisky business, before the brand name was created.) Teacher's states that it uses "fully smoked peat single malt whisky from The Ardmore distillery as its fingerprint whisky" along with about 30 other single malt whiskies.[1] Most of the output of the Ardmore distillery is used to produce the Teacher's brand. In 1830, William Teacher took advantage of the new "Excise Act" and began selling whisky. From 1832 he was selling it from his wife's grocery shop in Glasgow. By 1856, with help from his sons, he was granted a licence for consumption and opened his own dram shop. He died in 1876, leaving his two sons William Jr and Adam in charge of the company, known as William Teacher & Sons Ltd. They moved the business to St. Enoch Square, where it remained until 1991. The company opened its Ardmore distillery in 1898, ensuring a guaranteed supply of Scotch for its Teacher's Highland Cream blend. The brand entered the US market after the end of Prohibition in the United States; the first shipment of Teacher's was sent on the Cunard steamer Scythia. Teacher & Sons acquired the Glendronach distillery in 1960 and built a modern blending and bottling plant in Glasgow in 1962. In 1976, Teacher & Sons was bought by Allied Breweries, which became part of Allied Lyons in 1978 and then Allied Domecq in 1994. The Glendronach distillery was shut down in 1996 and was later sold off to Chivas Brothers after being reopened in 2002. In 2005, Allied Domecq was taken over by Pernod Ricard. Beam Inc. acquired Ardmore and the Teacher's brand, along with Laphroaig distillery on Islay. In 2014, Beam was purchased by Suntory to form Beam Suntory. Dimensions : 49cm x 35cm  Glazed
     
  • 57cm x 48cm The Dewar's whisky brand was created by John Dewar, Sr. in 1846.Under the control of his two sons, John A. Dewar Jr. and Thomas "Tommy" Dewar, the brand expanded to become a global market leader by 1896 and began to win several awards, including a gold medal in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Tommy became famous as the author of a travel journal, Ramble Round the Globe, which documented his travels while publicizing the Dewar name. Dewar's eventually expanded their product by constructing the Aberfeldy Distillery in 1896.
    John Dewar & Sons 1926 client correspondence with watermark on document
    The company joined Distillers Company in 1925. Distillers was acquired by Guinness in 1986, and Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo in 1997. Diageo sold Dewar's to Bacardi the next year. Dewar's rose to prominence in the United States when Andrew Carnegie requested a small keg of Dewar's Scotch whisky be sent to the White House for President James Garfield's inauguration. Carnegie also sent the same gift to President Benjamin Harrisonon his inauguration eight years later. In 1987, numerous cases of still perfect Dewar's Scotch were recovered by underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence from the shipwreck of the SS Regina, which sank in Lake Huron in 1913.

    Notable processes

    Dewar's pioneered the process of "marrying" the whisky in oak casks to allow the blend to age as one within the casks. After the blend is created, the whisky is returned to an oak cask and aged even further to obtain a smooth, robust finish.
Go to Top