Johnnie Walker Double Black Whisky

Upon his father's death in 1820, a young grocer named Johnnie Walker invested his £417 inheritance into a grocery and spirits shop on High Street in Scotland. While Walker himself was a teetotaller, he sold a popular single malt whisky under the name Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky. When Walker retired from the store in the 1850s, whisky sales represented just 8% of the store's business.In 1857, Alexander Walker — Johnnie Walker's eldest son — inherited the store and began improving its selection of single malt Scotch whiskies. In addition, Alexander had apprenticed with a tea merchant in Glasgow and there, had learned the art of blending tea. Under his stewardship, the House of Walker began blending whisky and bottling it in an iconic, square bottle adorned with a slanted label. By the time Alexander Walker retired in the 1880s, whisky sales represented over 95% of the store's business.Johnnie Walker Double Black was created by Master Blender Jim Beveridge as a darker, smokier interpretati