Johnnie Walker Double Black Label

The word "whiskey" comes from the Gaelic uisge, a shortened version of uisge beatha meaning "water of life," also known as aqua vitae in Latin. Whiskey was originally used as a medicine, both as an internal anesthetic and an external antibiotic.

Distilling techniques were brought to Ireland and Scotland sometime between 1100 and 1300 by monks. Since wine was not easily obtained there, barley beer was distilled into a liquor which became whiskey. The manufacturing of distilled spirits was limited to apothecaries and monasteries until the late 15th century. Whiskey made its way to North America with Irish and Scottish immigrants and has spread across the globe as well.

Though the various styles of whiskey use slightly different methods, all are essentially made in the same way. Whiskey starts out just the same as beer with a mash of grains—commonly barley, corn, rye, or wheat. Some, as in the case of barley, may also be malted. The grains are mixed with water and yeast for fermentation, which converts starches to sugars that become alcohol. Afterward, the beer is run through a still—either a pot still or continuous column still—that heats the liquid into a concentrated vapor. This comes out the other end as a high-proof liquid distillate that is clear.

Johnnie Walker Double Black Label made accessible for general discharge in 2011 after an effective dispatch in movement retail. The whisky was made accepting Black Label as an outline, adding progressively peaty malt whiskies to it and developing it in vigorously scorched old oak barrels