Johnnie Walker. Forty-seven whiskies.

In 1820, John Walker had a grocery shop in Kilmarnock, where he sold whisky among other things. In those days loose whisky was often of varying quality; by mixing different whiskies a shopkeeper could deliver a taste that was the same every time. That is where the blend comes from.

Johnnie Walker does not distil itself. The blends are composed from whiskies of distilleries within the Diageo group, including Cardhu and Caol Ila. The colour names indicate the level: Red, Black, Double Black, Green, Gold and Blue.

The logo, the Striding Man, was drawn in 1908 by the cartoonist Tom Browne. He originally walked to the right; in 1999 he was turned around for the Keep Walking campaign. The square bottle with the slanted label also dates from those early years.

Not a distillery, but the art of putting together: that is what a blend is.

Johnnie Walker releases many special editions, and they are not all equally easy to find. We have thirteen in stock, from the White Walker from the Game of Thrones series to the Squid Game edition and two collaborations around film and fashion.

The Blue Label City series plays with the year 2220 and appeared in versions for Mars, Berlin and London. The Robert Wun bottle belongs to the Year of the Horse. The Master’s Cut is the most expensive bottle of the brand that we carry.

The two Bottle Your Own bottles are sixteen-year-old whiskies at forty-eight percent, filled at the visitor centre in Edinburgh. They rarely appear in a Dutch shop.

Thirteen editions you will not see standing side by side in most shops.