Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ghost and Rare Port Ellen Blended Scotch Whisky

Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ghost and Rare Port Ellen Blended Scotch 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. Also, 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 had represented over 95% of the store's business. This Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ghost and Rare is the second edition in this series of special limited edition releases. The blend is comprised of grain whiskies from long defunct ghost Scotch whisky distilleries, highlighting one of the mostexalted shuttered distilleries on IslayPort Ellen. The other whiskies in the blend include Caledonian and Carsebridge, harmonizing Port Ellen's peaty and iodine character. Five additional rare malts (Mortlach, Dailuaine, Cragganmore, Blair Athol, and Oban) are married into the blend yielding a well-rounded mouthfeel and finish. Each of these whiskies are aged at least 20 years. Overseen by Johnnie Walker Master Blender, Dr. Jim Beverage, Port Ellen lies at the heart of this incredible expression, imparting a delicious peatiness and a dose of brine. The result is a whisky with layers of creamy vanilla sweetness and rolling waves of waxy citrus, rich malt and tropical fruit notes - all perfectly balanced by the distinctive maritime smokiness of Port Ellen that lingers in, the long and warming finish. Pick up your bottle today!