Johnnie Walker “Oldest” Blue Label Scotch Whisky

Johnnie Walker Blue Label, as we all know, is pretty much the flagship product for JW.  The rarest of whiskies, the finest of malts and the backstory that only 1 in 10’000 casks makes the grades.

But how many of you know how it started?  Read on and learn.

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.

The company joined Distillers Company in 1925 and with so much going on, so many distilleries and long before the sight of computer-me-bobs and technology – many casks were forgotten, overlooked, mislaid and disregarded.  Until the 1970s, when they got their shit together and found loads of whiskies that were 40, 50 and even 60 years old, that had fallen below 40% ABV and so couldn’t be bottled as Scotch Whisky.