John Barr Circa 1980's 75cl

The John Barr blend was created for the UK market in the 1970s to imitate the recently withdrawn Johnnie Walker Red Label. By the 1970s the DCL had been ordered by the European Commission to address issues concerning dual pricing of goods, a system used to generate higher margins in export markets, which its agents used to fund promotional activity. To protect its overseas agents, the DCL withdrew several of its blends from the UK market, including Johnnie Walker Red Label and Haig Dimple.

So desperate was its owner, DCL, to recover the lost sales from one of its best-selling brands that the original John Barr bottle even mimicked the square-shape made so famous by its predecessor.

The brand was put together by the same Johnnie Walker team but licensed to George Cowie & Sons Ltd, (which is associated most closely with Speyside’s Mortlach distillery). Sales never came close to the levels of Red Label and the brand was considered more of a curiosity than a serious player in the market. In the early 1980’s it was popular in the Midlands and north-west England.

We estimate this was bottled circa 1980’s.

40% ABV / 75cl

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