On this edition of Fun Facts…did you know that a dram is not a standard measure of whisky?

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The man behind this creation is one of the ‘big 4’ as referred to in the whisky industry – James Buchanan. There is a lovely short video on the story of Black & White whisky that we will find and post shortly but for now a short snippet.

 
James moved at the age of 30 in the year 1879 from Leith to London. He worked as an agent for Charles Mackinlay (The folks who bottled whisky for the Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition). His formative years in Scotland presented him the knowledge and friends in the industry early on, hence when working as an agent, James learnt that the English folk did not appreciate the robustness of the whiskies (most whiskies at the time were pure malt or contained very little grain).

Being a shrewd businessman and with his knowledge of the blenders in Scotland he started his own enterprise by sourcing a whisky from Glasgow blenders W. P. Lowrie & Co. It was named the “Buchanan’s blend”. Dalwhinnie, Clynelish and Glendullan were the distilleries from which the whisky was sourced. This was around the year 1884 and this blended whisky was supplied in a distinct black bottle with a white label. Within a year of this whisky being marketed it became extremely popular and made its way to the members bar at the House of Commons in London.
This whisky was renamed by James as “House of Commons Finest Old Highland whisky”; but the story goes that the public did not care much for its name but rather referred to it as ” That Black & White Whisky” owing to the bottle and label colours. This name was adopted by James Buchanan and thus Black & White brand name was created around the year 1902.
The terriers on the label came much later between 1930 -1940, when James visited an animal show and incorporated a picture of them in the label. This remains to be one of the best and early trademarks of the industry. This brand now forms a formidable part of the blended scotch whiskies portfolio at Diageo.

In this post bottle 1(without the royal warrant) estimated from around the 50’s and the subsequent one is from the 70’s nstrating the label evolution.