YOU’D BE right to think that the blenders behind the world-famous Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky have an obsessive focus on making their blends excellent year after year.
And while they are maintaining their high standards, there are hundreds of experiments in flavour being carried out behind the scenes by the brand’s blending team in Scotland, which involve distillation conditions, the types of wood and grain used, cask finishes and other elements of the ancient craft.
Now, for the first time, the brand is offering the fruits of its efforts with the release of their experimental whisky, Johnnie Walker Blenders’ Batch Red Rye Finish.
The limited edition series of experimental whiskies reveals the skill and never-ending pursuit of exceptional new flavours that drives the small team of 12 expert blenders, led by master blender Jim Beveridge, whose personal whisky-making journey began more than 40 years ago.
The ongoing experiments that Beveridge and fellow blender Emma Walker have led are a crucial part of their work, focusing on developing and understanding alternative flavours including wine, coffee and chocolate.
The first to be launched in the Blenders’ Batch series is the Red Rye Finish, which is inspired by the time Beveridge spent blending bourbons and ryes in Kentucky in the 1990s.
Walker, who is the company’s first female master blender in its history, concocted the new blend through 50 experiments. The team explored 203 malt grain whisky samples, created by four whiskies, including Cardhu single malt for its vibrant fresh fruitiness, along with creamy, vanilla grain whisky from the former Port Dundas distillery. It was then drawn from former bourbon casks and finished for up to six months in former rye casks for a perfect balance of intense sweetness, layered fresh fruit and spice.
“I love having the opportunity to experiment and play around with flavour when making whisky and with more than 8 million casks of whiskies in over 30 distilleries to choose from, the only limit put on our experiments is that of our own imagination,” Walker said.
“As blenders, we tend to think ‘from the bar back’ when making whisky so that whisky fans at home and bartenders have the ideal blends at hand to serve neat, on the rocks, with ginger ale, soda or as the foundation of a flawless Scotch-based cocktail, like the Manhattan.”
To gauge how Red Rye Finish stacks up against its American cousin, Walker journeyed from the Highlands of Scotland to downtown Manhattan, New York City.
The trip proved a rich source of inspiration for her as the blend was well received by quite a few of the most influential names in the New York cocktail culture, including Dave Arnold, Krissy Harris, Sother Teague and Peter Napolitano.
During the visit, she introduced Red Rye Finish as an alternative ingredient to bourbon for the whisky-based Manhattan cocktail. The blend worked its magic on the cocktail by retaining the cocktail’s original flavour, much to the delight of the American mixologists.
For almost two centuries, six generations of Johnnie Walker’s blenders – starting with John Walker himself – have been bold visionaries, playing and experimenting with flavour, not out of duty or necessity but because they love what they do.
This skill and vision has |enabled the blenders to consistently create perfect whiskies such as Johnnie Walker Red Label and Johnnie Walker Black Label for generations.

 Johnnie Walker Blenders’ Batch Red Rye Finish is available for a limited time at supermarkets, restaurants, clubs and convenience stores nationwide.