The way Emma Walker talks about her meal at The Bombay Canteen—especially the chaat and pork birria tacos—you’d never think it’s only her second visit to India.
Last year, the master blender and lead technical specialist for Johnnie Walker came to Delhi to launch a special-edition Johnnie Walker Blue Label bottle designed by Rahul Mishra. This time around, she has created a one-of-a-kind festive blend inspired by Diwali and other Indian celebrations.
The 18-months-in-the-making Johnnie Walker Blue Label Festive Blend uses sweetness, spice, and smoke in the right ratio. “There are hints of spices—cardamom, turmeric, cumin—alongside saffron, rose water, sort of dried fruits and nuts, and the Talisker adds the smokiness,” she says, breaking down the India-inspired edition.
In Bengaluru, Walker’s fellow whisky makers at United Spirits Limited picked from the 20 prototypes that she and her colleague Greg Bruce created.
“We wanted our colleagues to interpret Diwali in the blend. This particular version almost evoked memories of fireworks, bonfires, and the different celebrations associated with the festival. So, that made this the perfect whisky for us.”
And while the blend might take its cues from Diwali, Walker is equally keen on how it makes its way into your glass. Below, she shares how she made the celebratory blend, the one Indian ingredient she’s still not figured out, and the easiest way to convert a non-whisky drinker to the spirit this season.
How did you zero in on the notes for the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Festive Blend?
We have nearly 11 million casks of maturing whisky across Scotland. We create notes of some of the flavours, like cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves, through our distilling and maturation process. That really helped us look at our inventory with a slightly different creative lens. We had to sort of pull out those [existing] flavours in Johnnie Walker to the forefront. So, the experimentation is really building on what’s come before but with a new viewpoint.
When you say this is very India-inspired, what does it mean in a glass?
Johnnie Walker Blue Label is known for its depth and richness. This blend has got whisky from Port Dundas, one of our ghost distilleries, so it gives you that beautiful, smooth, sweet texture and honeyed notes as well. There’s Kleinlich, which is one of our most important whiskies, where you get that lovely waxy, sort of almost oily mouthfeel. It gives that beautiful texture but also tropical fruit. So, we hope it evokes emotions or memories of celebrations with family, with friends.
Any flavours you initially wanted to include but have left out?
The Festive Blend has some hints of coriander seed, but we have dialled back on it. We have not quite understood how to work with fresh coriander and some of the more sour flavours that you get in Indian cuisine. But I’m very excited for us to keep on exploring to better understand how you work with that. When we work with the chefs, we’re always trying to pick that up.
How often do you collaborate with chefs and bartenders during the making of a blend?
When we start sending out whiskies around the world, there are always conversations about how people are drinking it, what the key flavours are. We are a magpie country and we like to take lots of different flavours and bring them back to the UK. It’s always been a two-way conversation. For the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Elusive Umami, we collaborated with chef Kobayashi to capture umami. I think just being able to talk to chefs, to flavour experts, is an amazing way for us to understand more about it as well.
We also get to see how bartenders from around the world are interpreting the spirit, what ingredients they’re using. There is always almost that cultural exchange that sort of inspires us.
What’s the younger consumer, especially Gen Z, drinking today?
I think the younger generation is curious and wants to experiment. They are moving past the notion that Scotch needs to be consumed neat or maybe over ice. A simpler drink, like a highball, pulls apart some of the flavours and lets you see the different inspirations and notes. So, longer serves like highballs can be a comfort zone for young drinkers.
What’s the best way to introduce someone to whisky?
One of the challenges for people who have not tried whisky before is that they often try it as a dram. That’s got higher ABV and can be quite strong in flavour. So, starting with a highball, having that dilution, is the correct way to go. You can lengthen it and see when we find the right spot where the whisky works for you.
Japan definitely owns the highball serve, but we [at Johnnie Walker] have worked with highballs for over a century. We’ve got pictures in the archives where you would have the Johnnie Walker marketing team with all the bottles, but there would always be a soda siphon next to them. So that’s been part of the history of Scotch whisky all the way through; it’s that type of serve.
Is there a highball recipe with which you can bring even a non-whisky drinker around?
One of my favourites in the summer back in Scotland is Johnnie Walker with blood orange soda, because it’s just got that sort of sweetness and citrus and it tastes of summer to me. And with the smoke that you get in Johnnie Walker, you can almost smell the barbecue. For the winter, I would lean towards tonic. When it comes to the winter months, a lot of people go for a negroni, sort of more bitter, deeper flavours.
If you had to create a highball, what are the ingredients that you’d pick for a drink?
I love the versatility of highballs. You can have it with a simple soda or you can have complex syrups like jasmine green tea; there are so many different things you can explore in that space to complement and to contrast with the different whiskies that you work with. But one of my favourite highball serves is actually a Johnnie Walker with tonic; it’s spritzy and you’ve got the sweetness of the whisky, so we don’t need to add more sweet flavours.
