Early on at school, Emma Walker realised she was good at chemistry and enjoyed studying it, which made deciding what she wanted to study at university an easy choice.
“When I got there someone handed me a Talker, and that began my love for whisky and my passion for flavor,” Walker told the prestigious Forbes magazine, adding that after doing her Ph.D, she accepted a job as a process chemist like many of her friends, but holding a passion for flavours and the science behind them, she knew she wanted to do something that could involve flavour.
In 2008, she applied for a job at Diageo’s Technical Centre in Menstrie, Scotland, and she has not looked back since.
Last year, Walker became the first female Master Blender in Johnnie Walker’s 200 years of existence. Last week, she took media and influencers across the world through a virtual multi-sensory experience of how the Scottish Black Label is blended with depth and balance of flavour.
At the event, boxes before us opened and in them were five bottles.
One by one, our pallets got a taste of the whiskies, each distinct in flavour. Like that, we got to know what Dr Walker’s work entails; being able to savour the sweet floral and maritime flavours of Clynelish, the firm and sweet Coal Ila, grassy sweet Glenkinchie and smoky apple and peer-flavoured Cardhu.
For the four malts, we had water to clean and refresh the pallets. Walker, who took over the reins from Jim Beveridge OBE who retired after a 40-year run at Diageo in 2021, let us become blenders for the evening and you bet none of us could be as perfect as she is but the social cohesion was cordial and warm, climaxing the evening with a toast and thereon digging into spicy and tasty meats.
rbatte@ug.nationmedia.com