Johnnie Walker's Flagship Scotch Whiskies

Selling one bottle annually for every fifty people in the world, Johnnie Walker is the most popular and widely available brand of Scotch whisky in the world. Produced in Kilmarnock, Scotland, four varieties are consistently available, each product being identified by a particular color label: Black, Blue, Gold, and Red-Label Scotch. Ranging in price from $25 per bottle to more than $200, Johnnie Walker is consumed at a frantic pace worldwide, with 120 million annual bottle sales averaging out to nearly four bottles being consumed every second! The company originally set out to produce master blends of Scotch whisky the early nineteenth century, when fifteen-year-old John Walker founded his own grocery store and began bottling blends under the name of Walker's Highland Whiskies.

The first variety of blended J.W. Scotch, Black Label, consists of forty blended whiskies, each having been aged for a minimum of twelve years. This line is the continued bottling of Walker's original Highland Whiskies, began in 1965, later bottled under the name of Extra Special Old Highland, and finally given the title of "Black Label" in 1909. That same year, the Red and later-discontinued White-Label whiskies were also first released under 'Label' names. Johnnie Walker White Label would be discontinued less than a decade later, the victim of an attempt to project a more upscale image in 1911. Johnnie Walker Black Label, however, is still produced, and includes nearly forty whiskies aged for a minimum of twelve years and then blended to perfection, before bottling in Walker's distinctive, square-shaped bottles.

The second variety, Blue Label, is by far the most expensive product regularly bottled by Walker, with each bottle leaving the blending house with an individual numerical marking. The production of Blue Label begins near the Queen's holiday home in Balmoral; there, the malt whisky Royal Lochnagar is produced and aged, before being blended with fifteen other premium Scotch whiskies. Bottled to imitate the taste and character of nineteenth century Scotch, Blue Label is described as an "acquired taste" by the manufacturer and "not a whisky for beginners." However, those who can appreciate its finer qualities may best express their descriptive appreciation by quoting Alexander Walker, son of the brand founder, who proclaimed Blue Label to be "a blend that cannot be beat."

Gold Label bottlings produced by Johnnie Walker consist of premium whiskies aged for not less than eighteen years; the production idea was originally inspired by John Walker's private notebooks, which contained hundreds of pages of ideas for tasting, production, and aging by the master distiller. In contrast to the bolder flavor of Walker's other bottlings, light notes of mead, spice, wood and fruit dominate the taste of Gold Label, whereas the other product lines generally present peatier flavors, heavier bodies, and greater degree of spice. The Walker-recommended method of serving Gold Label suggests serving in a frozen glass, with rich and bitter chocolate served aside as a flavorful compliment. The freezing supposedly reduces the harsh introduction of wood and peat flavors, whose dominance may mask hints of fruit and honey.

Finally, Johnnie Walker's Red Label Scotch is generally the cheapest bottling available, presenting a collection of complex flavors within the confines of a rather inexpensive bottle. Often under-rated, Red Label contains many popular malt whiskies in its blend, including oft-reknown Talisker among three dozen more. Walker Red Label is now the most popular Scotch whisky in the entire world, with distribution throughout most of the world's two hundred nations. Because of its popularity and reknown, Red Label has set the standard for whisky production throughout much of the spirits world, and is only bested in annual sales of any type of whiskey by Jameson in nearby Ireland.

For a variety of Scotch blends to suit every occasion and budget, Johnnie Walker serves all purposes. Their four flagship bottlings are of exceptional quality and reasonably priced, and while that cannot be said for every spirit, Walker should be enjoyed as any other alcohol beverage: Responsibly.