that makes a 70-year-old man return to work at an advanced age? What keeps a billionaire working? What is it that makes whiskey master switch to several manufacturers in more than ten years? Even switched to the rum industry in his later years?
The above questions all come from a master with a high reputation in the whiskey industry - Billy Walker (Billy Walker), the owner of the hot Glen Allachie distillery. Not only a master of whiskey blending, Billy Walker is now a successful businessman, an investor who turns everything into gold, and many little-known whiskey distilleries are thriving under his leadership.
will take everyone closer to Billy Walker today to understand his power that can turn decay into magic.
fledgling talent show
In 1946, Billy Walker was born in ScotlandDumbarton(Dumbarton), which is also the birthplace of the famous blended whiskey brand Ballantine&39;s. Graduated from University of Glasgow (University of Glasgow) in 1967 (and Bill Liang Sidun is still an alumnus), with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. This was followed by 4 years of professional chemistry.
Billy Walker’s whiskey career began in 1972, when he joined Ballantine’s parent company, Hiram Walker & Sons, to produce blended whiskey. It was also there that he systematically learned the entire process of whiskey production, from malting, fermentation, distillation, aging to blending, storage, and even bottling.
Young Billy Walker at Inver House
After mastering a very high level of expertise, Billy Walker left in 1976 to become Inver House's Master Blender. Here he has a higher degree of autonomy, and began to boldly carry out barrel selection experiments and barrel aging experiments, which also laid the foundation for his vicious barrel selection vision.
After working in Inver House Winery for 6 years, the young and energetic Walker switched jobs again. In 1982, he switched to Burn Stewart Winery as Chief Bartender and Director of Operations, becoming a member of the core management team. This company was described by Walker himself as "very poor in facilities, but very smart in mind", so he worked for 20 years. During this time he was part of the management involved in the takeover of two single malt distilleries, Deanston and Tobermory, and played a key role in the renaissance of both distilleries.
The reconstruction of these two dormant wineries has brought great interest to Billy Walker, which also made him start to look at those wineries that lack attention but are full of potential. He began to work as a business manager to think about the problem. Walker then made his move after Burn Stewart was acquired.
Fame and fortune
Billy Walker turned his attention to the then little-known Ben Riach distillery, which was owned by Chivas Brothers and had been out of production for many years. In 2004, Walker and two partners joined forces to acquire the Benriach distillery and original wine inventory at a low price of 5 million pounds, and established the Benriach Distillery Company (BenRiach Distillery Company) to lead the reconstruction of the distillery Work.
After forming a good partnership with the Chivas brothers, another dormant Chivas winery, GlenDronach, attracted Walker's attention. Although Grandona has been closed for 6 years and is facing great inventory pressure, Billy Walker took a fancy to the rich stock of sherry original wine in the winery, and he was also willing to face the challenge, so Grandona Dona Winery was acquired by him in 2008.
However, Billy Walker's ambitions did not stop there. In 2013, he and his team acquired the unknown Glenglassaugh winery. This highland winery is located on the seaside of Sandender Bay, with magnificent natural scenery and full of ocean flavor. I have a soft spot for this.
At this point, Benriac owned three distilleries, for which Billy Walker developed an appropriate revival strategy, bringing an astonishing array of single malt whiskeys to market, with Walker himself in the meantime Gradually became famous.
Under the painstaking efforts of Billy Walker and other staff in the winery, Benriac launched a vintage series with high response, the classic 12-year-old Sherry cask of Glendona was launched, and Glengrasso was released The 30-year and 40-year ultra-high vintage private collection series, the three wineries have developed into hot star wineries, and the market value has also increased.
Billy Walker, who was never satisfied, saw the opportunity and sold three wineries to the Brown-Forman Group for £285 million in 2016. Walker himself made a lot of money from it 95 million pounds, became a billionaire.
Seventy years old, set sail again
After selling three distilleries and resting for about a year, the 70-year-old Billy Walker seemed unable to hold back his enthusiasm for whiskey and chose to come out of the arena again.
In 2017, he and his team acquired the long-dormant and also little-known Glen Allachie winery in Speyside. Glennaridge Distillery was established in 1967 and started production in 1968, making it a fairly young Scotch whiskey distillery. The distillery did not release a single malt product in the early days, and the original wine was mostly used as the base wine for blending whiskey, and it also had a rich inventory of original wine.
Billy Walker in the cellar of Glen Allachie Winery
After Walker took over the distillery, Glenachie used the existing original wine to launch a variety of vintage whiskeys, which were well received and well received, especially the Sherry cask products. At the same time, Billy Walker decided to extend the fermentation time to give the new wine a more fruity style and better quality, and began to experiment with the solera system and various flavor barrels. Granna Ridge has also made a splash in the market, becoming a rising star in the whiskey world.
50 years of master achievement
Going back to the three questions raised in the opening chapter, what supported Billy Walker all the way to become a master in the whiskey industry was his deep love for whiskey besides money.
In decades of practice accumulation, Walker has also formed his own unique whiskey philosophy. No matter how many distilleries he has run, he always insists on slowing down, firmly believes that whiskey is the art of time, never rushes for success, and spares no time in polishing the best whiskey products.
In addition, he also attaches great importance to the use of oak barrels and . Billy Walker insisted that the winery spend £2 million a year on new barrels and reconditioning old ones. He will personally select the right wood to create the highest quality barrels, and will constantly evaluate the aging degree of the oak barrels during use, and replenish the wood in time to ensure the richness of the whiskey.
This year, the master ushered in his 50th year in the whiskey industry. Members of the Whiskey Hall of Fame, Scottish Master Distiller, Master Blender, Industry Leader of the Year... and other honors are the best footnotes of his career.
Billy Walker's success goes without saying, his whiskey legend continues, and we look forward to the master continuing to create outstanding whiskey products.