Johnnie Walker Blender Spills Cask Secrets

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The man behind the world’s biggest-selling Scotch talks about new markets, old spirits and special barrels.

For Johnnie Walker master blender Craig Wilson, whisky making is where art meets science.

© Diageo
| For Johnnie Walker master blender Craig Wilson, whisky making is where art meets science.

Craig Wilson is the man who decides which barrels go into which bottles.

Wilson is the master blender for Diageo, the world’s largest whisky company, responsible for about one-third of all whisky distilled in Scotland. He oversees a portfolio headed by the blend Johnnie Walker, with notable single malts including Talisker, Lagavulin and Mortlach.

Twenty years ago, the job would mainly have been deciding which casks go into Johnnie Walker and which go into J&B or Black & White. But now, not only has every whisky brand exploded into multiple non-age statement whiskies for duty-free shops; Diageo releases a collection each year of Special Releases with differing ages and wood finishes. The 2021 releases included Mortlach 13-year-old and a 26-year-old Lagavulin finished in Pedro Ximenez casks.

I wanted to know how Wilson keeps all this straight. How do you keep the big brands consistent while also putting out an ever-increasing number of small releases? We spoke by Zoom.

How do you decide whether a barrel is worthy of being a special release?

Generally speaking the special releases are barrels we’ve identified while working on the main range: the Cardhu, for example. We’ll put that aside and just keep watching its development.

Does it diminish the main releases to not have these good barrels as part of them?

We have a very strong idea of what our standard Cardhu looks like. We spend a lot of time and effort assuring the consistency of that. The special releases will be something different, a bit less expected from a certain brand. It might be different wood types. They’re massively important in that they draw a lot of interest. Some people are drawn to these in the way that they wouldn’t be to the standard release. They used to be a small cult thing. In the last two years we’ve really ramped that up because there’s a lot of interest.

Previously [special releases] were more focused on more mature whiskey markets. The US and Canada were the main markets. Now we find a lot more interest from collectors in the Far East, South Africa in many places.

Johnnie Walker needs to be replicable, but how replicable is the flavor profile of an age-statement single malt?

There’s always a time lag, if we’re dealing with a 15-year old whisky. We’re dealing with such a variable process, cask aging. For me, that’s one of the beauties of special releases. It’s a one-off. We don’t have to worry about replicating it. The rules around Scotch whisky have been relaxed considerably in the last couple of years. Now we’re able to choose from a much wider range of wood types. People are working on Mezcal finishes and Calvados finishes. Whenever we do a cask release, you’ve seen ones that have worked. Others may have gone in different directions that we might not be as happy with.

What happens to the whisky when a barrel doesn’t work out?

In that situation we would probably take it from that barrel and put it in a different kind of barrel and take the flavor in a direction we’re more comfortable with. There is a degree of knowledge behind what we’re doing. Our knowledge of the science is far ahead of what it has been. We are being asked to come up with more interesting stories about the provenance of our casks, the way we’re aging things. With the influx of small distilleries in America, we really have to try to stay, if not ahead of the game, at least to keep up.

What do Scotch whisky laws prevent you from doing that you’d like to try?

We are still restricted in the ingredients we use to make it. We still have to use oak casks. No other type of cask is allowed. Irish whiskies use enzymes in the fermentation that we’re not allowed to use. It’s a double-edged sword. [The laws are] massively important because it protects the product. But we do cast an envious eye at other parts of the industry.

What does Scotch give people that other whiskies do not?

The important thing with Scotch is that the product has been produced so well. You’re tasting something that has been refined and honed by blenders and producers for generations. We’ve also got a unique climate in the way we mature things. It’s cold in the warehouses and that gives us a long slow maturation that gives nuances to the flavor. A whiskey matured in a hotter climate can be more up front but I don’t think it has that depth.

Much of what Diageo does has been centralized. What is it that defines the terroir of single malt brands?

That was something I studied when I did my PhD. I was looking at the water and how it affects the flavor of a whisky. It’s a combination of lots and lots of small factors, whether it be the barley type, the yeast, the way you mature it. There are so many factors you can tweak slightly that can change the whisky. And the warehouse and how you mature it.

Could you make Port Ellen whisky in the Talisker distillery?

If you could move the entire kit up from Port Ellen to Talisker you’d get a fairly good representation. It’s very small differences.

Speaking of Port Ellen, you’re bringing that distillery back next year. Why was it closed in the first place?

At Port Ellen, the main issue was that it couldn’t produce a consistent spirit. Lagavulin, which was only two miles down the road from it, was much better at producing consistent smoky whisky. Johnnie Walker needed a consistent smoky whiskey and Lagavulin was better at producing it. What’s that given us is a library of interesting cask whiskies at Port Ellen. When we reopen it we’re looking at the main distillery producing a heavily peated style of whisky. We’re going to have an experimental side as well, because of the variety of flavors.

How popular are heavily peated whiskies today?

They’re massively popular. We always struggle for volumes on Lagavulin and Talisker and Caol Ila. Previously we did find that it was only certain markets. It was always popular in the US and Canada. Parts of the Far East didn’t really take to it. But Lagavulin has really taken a foothold in the Far East and we can’t produce enough of it. We also can’t produce as much Johnnie Walker as we’d like to. The recipe is sacrosanct and we wouldn’t be tweaking it to meet demand.

Does Johnnie Walker stifle your creativity?

We’ve been doing a lot of one-off blends. We’ve been doing black-label releases highlighting flavors from different parts of Scotland. We recently did a 48-year-old blend of Johnnie Walker. That was the master series. There’s innovation.

When you’re not working, do you drink whisky?

More often than not, if I’ve been putting together a prototype product, it’s much better to taste it at home. We do a lot of nosing in the lab. We find tasting when you have more time with the product, you have time to appreciate the flavors.

 A few years ago I interviewed Georges Duboeuf, the Beaujolais negociant. He tasted 200 wines a day and he had a strict and elaborate morning routine to keep his palate fresh. What’s your morning routine?

It’s a list of things not to do. It’s to not overpower your taste or your nose by eating really strongly flavored things. Not going into a nosing right after drinking espresso coffee. Giving yourself a clean slate for doing nosings.

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