Johnnie Walker: from Scotland to the World | Diageo

Black Label & Ginger, enjoyed around the world, but made 6,000 miles away, in Scotland. A place of striking and dynamic landscapes, and innovative, talented people. Just like John Walker, the humble grocer and the founder of Johnny Walker's Scotch Whisky. For two centuries, handmade, with heart and soul. I did my bit to get that whisky to where it is now. By craftsmen and women from Scotland's four corners. The care and attention, the effort everyone puts into whisky. When you see Johnny Walker all around the world, it makes us so, so proud. Under lock and key, let's take an extraordinary stroll through the Johnny Walker archive. Stock books, lending records, we've got ledgers to do with shipping and sales records. Everything that you can imagine that records the history of Johnny Walker. It's a really priceless asset that we have. Our story starts with John Walker. He was actually born in 1805, and he established the grocery shop in Kilmarnock in 1820. And that's where he sold Blended Scotch Whisky. Alexander took over from his father in 1857. One of the big things that he did was start the export trade. So you can imagine ports like Glasgow at that time were really booming. And Alexander saw the opportunity to use those trading routes to get Johnny Walker shipped around the world. So here we have one of the original blending books for Johnny Walker. And it lists all the blends that they were creating at that time. So to have these items in the archive is a really special thing. Since these early blends, Single Malts from Scotland's Four Corners have provided the rich character for Johnny Walker Black Label. It's seeped in history and heritage. We're very lucky to have the archives where we can look back and see how Johnny Walker Black Label has been blended over the decades, over the generations. And it's really gratifying to see how we make it today. It's extremely close to how it's been made in the past. We know that we're taking these 30 or more different distilleries from across Scotland and just balancing all those beautiful flavours. Including Speyside classics like Cardew. If you think about orchard fruits, you have fresh apples, pears, grape skins. Toasted malty cereal type notes in there. In the Highlands, Diageo's most northerly distillery, Kleinliche. The great thing about Kleinliche is the lovely, soft fruit flavours. Freshly cut green apples coming through. It also has the wonderful waxy flavour. Islay's Kalila adds a key flavour. In many ways, this is a classic Islay whisky. Full of smoke. And from the Lowlands, Glenkinchi. You get these top notes of delicate fruit, there's hints of heather there as well. Richer, slightly heavier character. Each of the single malts in Johnny Walker Black Label brings its own flavour and character. This depends on a number of different factors. Including the shape and style of the still, the fermentation. And whether or not we use malt that's been dried using peat. The process of creating single malt whisky is largely unchanged. And it all starts with this, the vital ingredient. Best quality malt. Whisky is made from four ingredients. Water, yeast, malted barley and talented people. First, the barley is ground up and mixed with hot water in the mash tun. The starch in the barley slowly turns to sugar. Leaving a sweet liquid called wort. The wort is transferred to the washbacks. Huge wooden barrels where yeast is added. As the yeast consumes the sugars, alcohol is produced. Creating a weak beer called wash. It's just a nice feeling, knowing that you're making something that somebody's going to enjoy worldwide. It's almost mind-boggling how far and wide that is. Then, it's on to the copper stills. We are a single malt distillery. We take great pride in our place. The whole history that's associated with Scotch whisky. And more so with Johnny Walker. Within Killeela, we know one of the major parts of that bottle is actually made here. And you are a part of that whole system. I mean, it really goes to the whole core of who we are and what we're all about. It just filled me with, yeah, chuffed. The alcohol and all the wonderful flavours in the wash have a lower boiling point than water. Passing over the top of the stills as vapour and condensing as liquid. And we get to make these things. Beautiful copper works of art. But the way you make them has been the same for 400 years. We've been here since 1790. The craftsmen that we work with at our coppersmiths are essential to distilling. They know each of our stills at all of our individual sites intrinsically. Obviously, you just assume whisky gets made. You don't know how it gets made or what goes into it. I basically make the things that make whisky to actually be a part of that. It's quite a big thing for me. The spirit that we get from each of our distilleries is called New Make Spirit. We spend a lot of time creating the perfect balance of flavours at each of our distilleries. And this is then complemented by what happens within the casks during maturation. What we do here is repair, rejuvenate and rebuild casks for the whisky industry, our industry. In the barrel park here, you can see there's 350,000 casks approximately. I'm a third generation cooper. And I love being able to come into the work in the morning and pass my craft on to apprentices. And I know that when that product goes out the door, that there's thousands or millions of people around the world enjoying a product that's been made in my barrel. Without that care, without that knowledge, we wouldn't be able to make the malt whisky, the grain whisky that we use to make Johnny Walker Black Label. So the Walkers weren't only pioneers in terms of blending Scotch whisky. They were real innovators. A big part of the story is the huge expansion in the export trade by 1920. So they moved to the square bottle for ease of transportation, for less damages, to make sure they got more bottles in a crate. It's really innovative. A great example of them always moving forward, always thinking ahead. Huge volume of Johnny Walker Black Label. Over 60 million bottles that go around the world to various markets. Out to Asia, to Singapore, to Hong Kong, Africa, Americas, all around the globe. Hong Kong shipping away. Thank you. Sometimes I have to, you know, stop and double check figures and think about that. The sheer size and scale of it, it's massive. Being a Kermarnock man, I'm so proud that, you know, I'm part of the Johnny Walker story. In Scotland, we're a very sharing nation. So we like to get our product out around the world. Nearly 200 years of heritage, history, the craft of blending that we are now responsible for. It comes from across the four corners. It's intrinsically linked with the people and the places where it's made. And to see that all come together in a blend and then that to be shipped all around the world and enjoyed. It's heartwarming.