Jonathan Driver launched the Johnnie Walker-Dunhill collaboration recently. He spoke to I Kaur about the origin of the brand
A fan would probably know that Johnnie Walker started in 1820 not as a whiskey brand but a grocery store. However, few would be aware that the reason they started blending whiskey was out of nothing but their fondness for Chinese tea. ConfusedIJ Global Ambassador for Johnnie Walker Blue label, Jonathan Driver laughs, “We have recently done a lot of work on the history of the brand and I have their shop inventory from 1825. We were selling peppers from the Caribbean, rum from America, dry fruits from the Mediterranean, spices from South East Asia and tea from China.
We were selling smooth black teas from China at that time. That skill of blending the smooth black teas was actually from where we learnt how to blend whiskey. I’m working with a Chinese historian who found that there was only one place in 1820s where all the tea trade was regulated. In July, I had a job in Beijing after which I had three days off. So I flew from Beijing to Fujian. I was told to visit the Wuyi Mountains but I ended up being at Ton Yi, where the tea shrubs are. There was a wooden factory run by two brothers. We tasted tea all day — smoky tea, sweet tea and rich tea. However, after everything, the mother of the two brothers said, ‘In our family’s history, we remember an Englishman coming here 150 years ago,’ and that was it. It was Johnnie Walker. I was standing in this old wooden building with these tea plantations all around me, knowing that the DNA of the Johnnie Walker business was not in Scotland but in the mountains of Fujian.”
Driver joined Johnnie Walker 25 years ago and became the Global Ambassador eight years ago. He was here to launch the association of the brand with Alfred Dunhill. “It is not enough to just make amazing whiskey — that is something we do anyway. So, we are launching limited edition packs. We’ve got a trunk designed and have also made a film called Celebration of a Journey Shared which features adventurer Jason lewis. I think Dunhill is a great combination of tradition, craft and heritage. We want to talk to their audience and they want to talk to ours,” he said.
According to Driver, what he does is a lot of storytelling. He shared, “I travel a lot and that is the idea. I’ve met so many different people. It could have been in a little bar in Beirut at 2 am or meeting a stranger who takes you to a local restaurant. The generosity of spirit by a person you haven’t met before is what keeps me going. Johnnie Walker, too, ‘goes everywhere’. We have always done that. Since the family business began in the 19th century, we travelled. We were in 190 countries by 1920, Coke was in two (laughs). Travelling is in our DNA.”
The brand has a special association with India, he added, “In 1920 we created a book to mark our 100 years. Everyone who distributed our products contributed to it with stories. India has a huge section in it. In 1920, India was our biggest exports market. So there is a massive historical association.”
Being in the whiskey business, Driver comes across massive hurdles as well. “The great danger with whiskey we have always faced is that we become old-fashioned. We lose relevance and become tired. If you go back to the end of the 20th century, we sort of ran out of steam with vodka and wine. There were always great things and everyone preferred them to us. That time we didn’t do anything to come back. This is why this time we have a new design that is not old-fashioned,” he said.
Signing off, Driver had only one thing to say about his job, “The way it is presented is what is important. If you don’t want to travel, meet people and don’t have a story to tell — this brand is not for you.”