Bottle design of the century
Johnny Walker just keeps walking on
For his 100th birthday, Johnny Walker is getting a temporary facelift.
In stores now, you can pick up your familiar Back Label in a revamped black glass bottle; the collector’s “Century Pack” edition also includes a timeline of the whiskey’s history on the back. “It’s quite stunning,” says master blender Andrew Ford in a strong Scottish brogue while on a tour of the U.S. for the anniversary. “It certainly stands out.”
Back in Black
“What happened was Alexander Walker came up with two whiskeys – the Special Old Highland Whiskey and the Extra Special Old Highland Whiskey,” says Ford. (This was back in 1906.) “One bottle had a red label, one was black. People would go into the store and say, ‘I’ll have the red label.
Or the black label.’” In 1909, they just decided to formally call the whiskey Black Label and Red Label.