The flavour of Johnnie Walker is 3,000 years old. The Whiskey Wash Johnnie Walker Advert Archive, published October 24th 1963

Johnnie Walker Advert Description

Publication: The Field
Date: October 24, 1963

Title: The flavour of Johnnie Walker is 3,000 years old

Visual Description:
The advert prominently features a Johnnie Walker Red Label bottle with a glass being poured, highlighting the rich amber color of the whisky. The layout includes several sections of text surrounding the main image.

Caption/Text in the Advert:
“The flavour of Johnnie Walker is 3,000 years old”

Main Text:
“Take a stretch of wild Scottish moorland. Make sure there is a good growth of heather. Leave it to soak for about three thousand years in the damp highland mists; cover occasionally with snow. And what have you got? Peat. Slow-burning, aromatic peat. The peat whose smoke gives so much of the characteristic flavour to malt whisky. And the finest of the malt whiskies go into Johnnie Walker.”

Subsections:

1. No fogey peat
   “To the layman’s eye, peat looks like partly dried coffee, but the peat used by the whisky industry is nothing so mundane. Neat and cut by hand, there is a beautifully crumbly and burning with dense smoke. At the bottom is black peat. Only the middle layer is right for the job—and that is what makes Johnnie Walker so fine.”

   Signup now to make sure you don't miss out on the latest whiskey news and deals.

   Email

   Sign up

   By Signing up, you accept and agree to our Terms of Services and you acknowledge our Privacy Statement. The Whiskey Wash is protected by reCAPTCHA, and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

2. Whisky and Water
   “That’s how to drink it—to appreciate its flavour at its best: with water. This was a Scottish secret, but it has come into the open now. Scotch whisky, you will find, will repay the trouble it takes to get to know it. You will find an unmatched pleasure in the world today. Neat, it’s limited anyway; a fine whisky with water will please.”

3. Copper Kettle – 1963 style
   “Two hundred years ago the coppers filled themselves with ale; today it’s whisky. Johnnie Walker is still made in copper, but now the kettle is on the boil twenty-four hours a day, producing more than eight million gallons a year. Yet this wonderful liquid retains all its unique character, and contributes a little of its individuality to the flavour of Johnnie Walker. Still, it’s made by hand—each one represents a man’s hand hammering by six coppersmiths.”

4. World’s Favourite
   “Many things are done to make it the world’s favourite Scotch whisky. You need only ask for a whisky—any whisky, to know the difference. Say ‘Johnnie Walker’ when you mean Johnnie Walker.”

5. This man grows whisky for Johnnie Walker
   “Robert Johnson his land and worked on Gateside Farm in Speyside for 80 years. Like his father before him he grows barley—and the pick of his crop goes to the nearby distillery. There it will play a star part in making fine malt whisky and thereafter find its way into Johnnie Walker and only the best of the malts do that.”

6. Some like Johnnie Walker hot “One of the finest winter drinks is a hot whisky toddy. This famous drink is made by putting a teaspoon of brown sugar into a tumbler, fill with a little hot water, and a slice of lemon. Pour in a measure of Johnnie Walker and fill with more hot water. Drink slowly, especially if you have a cold.”

7. Who was Johnnie Walker, anyway?
   “As you would expect, he was the man who started it all. John Walker was a real man, who started life as a grocer’s son, set up his own wine and spirit business in Kilmarnock in 1820. The famous walking figure, introduced in 1909 by Tom Browne, R.I., a famous illustrator of the day. It was based on a silhouette portrait of the founder.”

Product Information:
“Red Label: Bottle, 48/6 (24 fl. ozs.), Half Bottle, 23/3, Quarter Bottle, 11/9, Miniature, 3/2 (U.K. prices).”

Slogan:
“SAY JOHNNIE WALKER”