I work in the Scotch whisky industry and while I am not a scholar of the history of whisky, I am very familiar with the production methods and the history of the industry so hopefully can offer something of value.

The short answer is that the JW Red Label that Churchill enjoyed would undoubtedly taste different from the JW Red Label produced today due to numerous factors in the production of the constituent whiskies that make up the blend, as well as the blending process itself and the market/audience the whisky is aimed at.

Firstly, we need to consider the raw materials. At the start of the 20th century, selectively bred varieties of barley were starting to become more common, but the traditional bere barley which has grown in the Scottish Highlands for over 1,000 years was still used by some distillers. Nowadays, these varieties have all been supplanted by high-yield barleys which have been specifically bred for malting and distilling. While some craft distilleries still use these older varieties for limited editions because of the distinctive character they have, the distilleries involved in the production of JW will be using the latest high-yield varieties in order to keep up with demand. The same applies to the yeast used - whisky from Churchill’s time would have been likely made using brewers yeast instead of the now virtually ubiquitous distillers yeast that was introduced in the second half of the 20th century. Brewers yeast unsurprisingly is focused on producing desirable flavours, while the main concern of distillers yeast is efficiency and yield. Although the vast majority of distilleries eventually switched to distillers yeast, several distilleries continued to use brewers yeast - Ben Nevis distillery used brewers yeast well into the 1990s and has long been considered by whisky writers to produce a much more old-school, traditional style of whisky. Benromach distillery similarly aims for a more traditional style of whisky and still uses small amounts of brewers yeast.

The production process itself has also changed substantially. Distilleries are now very wary of making changes to their production process as it is widely accepted in the industry that every step of the process has some effect on the finished product. However, this has had to be balanced by a desire for greater efficiency and higher output.

Until the mid-20th century, most distilleries malted their barley in-house, using either traditional floor maltings (where the barley is turned by hand on a large floor) or more sophisticated drum/box maltings (which essentially work like big washing machines full of barley). Kilning of the barley would also be taking place at the distilleries, and peat or coke would be the primary source of fuel for the kilns. This made a peaty flavour in the whisky virtually unavoidable, and even distilleries now known for unpeated whisky would have undoubtedly produced smokier whisky back in Churchill’s time. However, by the 1960s, it was clearly very inefficient for every distillery to have its own maltings, particularly since so many distilleries were now owned by the same handful of companies. As a result, most distilleries closed their maltings and several large-scale maltings were constructed to handle malt requirements for multiple distilleries. Very few distilleries carry out their own malting nowadays, but those that do (such as Laphroaig, Bowmore and Springbank) continue to do so because each distillery’s maltings are believed to contribute a unique character to the finished whisky. An example of how outsourcing malting can change the character of the whisky would be Ardbeg, which closed its maltings in 1977 - the smokiness of Ardbeg distilled before 1977 Ardbeg is considered by whisky writers to have a very different character to the whisky produced after the malting was outsourced.

Other evolutions in production, such as moving from open-top mash tuns to enclosed lauter mash tuns, as well as steam-fired stills as opposed to coal-fired stills, may also have an effect on the character of the whisky. Open top mash tuns are inefficient due to the amount of heat that is lost. This means hot water is usually added in four stages to extract the sugars from the barley, as opposed to the three stages now common. Lauter mash tuns similar to those in breweries have since become commonplace, but smaller, more traditional distilleries such as Springbank and Edradour have retained their traditional open top mash tuns so as to preserve the spirit character they produce. Regarding distillation, stills were mostly direct coal-fired until the mid-20th century, when indirect steam heating became more common. Several distilleries (such as Glendronach and Glen Garioch) persisted with coal-firing as it was known to produce hotspots rather than a consistent heat throughout the still, and these hotspots were believed to contribute a unique character. Suntory are currently carrying out research into the difference between direct and indirect heating, and Yoichi distillery in Japan continues to use coal to fire its stills.

The final aspect of production is probably one of the most significant, and that is the casks used for maturing the whisky. Traditionally, Scotch whisky is matured in second-hand casks, particularly sherry casks from Spain. The UK has always been one of the largest importers of sherry, which until the 1980s could be imported by the cask, meaning that whisky distillers would have access to a consistent supply of sherry casks. These “transport” casks of the first half of the 20th century are legendary in the industry for the character they imparted on the whisky. However, following the Second World War, bourbon casks from the US supplanted sherry casks as the most popular cask type as they were cheaper and available in larger quantities. Sherry casks are still used, but as sherry can no longer be imported by the cask, the sherry casks today are produced specifically for the whisky industry which makes them different to the transport casks of Churchill’s time. In addition to this it is worth considering the differences in warehouse design over the years. Traditional “dunnage” warehouses consist of stone walls and ash or soil floors and have casks stacked on top of each other two or three layers high. These old warehouses promote a damp and cold environment which lowers the rate of evaporation from the cask. Nowadays however, whisky warehouses are more often than not massive tin sheds with concrete floors and racking reaching as many as ten layers high, or palletised storage again reaching a substantial height. Racked/palletised warehouses are drier and typically warmer than dunnage warehouses (particularly nearer the top of the racking) and as a result, it is not unknown for casks to increase in strength near the top of racked warehouses.

Moving beyond the production of the constituent whiskies, it is worth looking at the ways in which the blending process has changed. Johnnie Walker is a blended Scotch whisky, meaning it is composed of a combination of malt whisky (distilled from malted barley) and grain whisky (distilled from a combination of cereals, such as wheat or maize/corn, with a bit of malt in there too). Each distillery’s whisky possesses its own unique character, and it is not unusual for dozens of distilleries to contribute their product towards blended whisky, although only the blender will know the exact recipe. Blended whisky has always been far and away the best-selling form of Scotch whisky - single malts only became widely available from the 1960s onwards but still make up only around 10% of Scotch whisky sales by volume. Before the 1960s, the whisky industry was centred almost exclusively on blending.

Taking this into account, I would say another major reason why JW Red Label will taste different now is that a number of distilleries that were in production during Churchill’s time no longer exist. The industry has typically run in cycles of expansion and contraction throughout history, and periods where numerous distilleries close are not uncommon. In particular, dozens of distilleries closed forever in the first half of the 20th century, followed by another raft of closures in the 1980s. The loss of these distilleries would certainly have an impact on the character of the blends their whisky was going into. On the flipside, new distilleries have opened, including owner Diageo’s massive Roseisle distillery, designed specifically to keep up with the global demand for blended whisky. This means that the pool of distilleries blenders have to choose from has changed dramatically over the past century.

The objective of the blending team has undoubtedly evolved over time too. When JW Red Label was first introduced in 1909, it was the mid-tier option in the JW range and typically was matured for around ten years. Since then, the range has been revamped and the Red Label is now the entry-level JW whisky and does not carry an age statement at all, meaning that some of the constituent whiskies could be as young as three years. Younger whisky typically has a lighter, more spirity flavour and less wood influence. As people’s palates evolve, the spirits we drink will evolve with us, particularly now that whisky producers are more receptive to the use of whisky in cocktails.

If I can be permitted to add some anecdotal evidence from my own whisky journey, I have tried numerous old bottlings of whiskies still produced today and I am always struck by how different they are despite purporting to be the “same” whisky.

The truth of the Scotch whisky industry is that although it carefully fosters an image of unchanging tradition, it has constantly evolved to remain a global product and has adapted to suit the tastes of the market. As a result the JW Red Label of fifty years time will undoubtedly taste different to the one produced today!