[Applause]
Black Label and ginger. Enjoyed around
the world, but made 6000 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 Johnnie
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 Johnnie Walker
all around the world,
that makes us so, so proud.
[Music]
Under lock and key, let's take an
extraordinary stroll through the Johnnie
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 Johnnie 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 saw 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 Johnnie Walker
shipped around the world.
So here we have one of the original
blending books for Johnnie Walker and it
lists all the blends that they were
creating at that time. So, having 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 Johnnie
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 Johnnie Walker Black Label
has been blended over the decades, over
the generations, and it's really
gratifying to see that how we make it today
is extremely close to how it's
been made in the past. We know that we're
taking these thirty or more different
stories from across Scotland, just balancing
all those beautiful flavours, including
Speyside classics like Cardhu. If you
think about orchard fruits, your fresh
apples, pears, grape skins. Toasted
multi-cereal type notes in there.
In the Highlands, Diageo's most northerly
distillery, Clynelish. The great thing about
Clynelish is the lovely soft fruit flavours.
Freshly cut green apples coming through.
It also has the wonderful waxy flavour.
Islay's Caol Ila adds a key flavour.
In many ways, this is a classic Ila whisky.
Full of smoke. And from the Lowlands, Glenkinchie.
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
Johnnie 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 has been dried using peat. The
process of creating single malt whiskies 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
somebody is 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 Johnnie Walker.
Within Caol Ila, 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 fills me with, I'm, yeah, chuffed.
[Music]
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 here. The way
you make them has been the same for 400
years. We've been here since 1790. The
craftsmen that we work with,
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 was
quite a big thing for me.
The spirit that we get from each of our
distilleries is called new mixed spirit. We
spend a lot at home creating the
perfect balance of flavours at each of
our distilleries and this is then
complemented by what happens within the
casks during maturation.
[Music]
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 in to work in the morning
and pass my craft onto apprentices.
And I know that when that product goes
out the door that there's thousands of
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 Johnnie Walker Black Label.
So the Walkers weren't only
pioneers in terms of blending Scotch
whisky, they were real innovators. 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 Johnnie
Walker Black Label, over sixty 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 shuttling 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, but it's-
it's massive. Being a Kilmarnock man, I'm so
proud that, you know, I'm part of the
Johnnie Walker story, and Scotland, we're a
very cheering nation, so we like to get a
product out around the world.
Nearly 200 years of heritage, history, the
crafts of blending that we are now
responsible. 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 the blend and then that to be
shipped all around the world and enjoyed.
It's heartwarming.
[Music]