The story behind Justerini & Brooks and J&B whisky

The story of J&B plays out across seven acts beginning in 1749 with a love-sick young Italian named Giacomo Justerini who was a long way from home in London's Haymarket.

Giacomo Justerini

Giacomo Justerini may be the first character in a multi-layered story but he endures in the modern brand of J&B Rare blended scotch whisky though not just through his initial 'J' that proudly adorns every bottle but the fact that to this day, Justerini & Brooks, the company behind the brand, retains the name of its key founding partner.

Giacomo Justerini was a young Italian who worked at his uncle's distillery in Bologna. Such was his skill and understanding of blending spirits, coupled with his family position, that he was the likely candidate to succeed his uncle. However, his destiny was changed by his love for a beautiful singer, Margherita Bellino. While he dreamed about her, she dreamed of becoming an opera star and left Italy for a part in a London opera. Even though his love for Margherita was unrequited, Giacomo gave notice to his uncle and followed her to England.

Justerini arrived in London at a time when the city was recovering from centuries of plague, war and famine. Just four years earlier Britain had been rocked by the Jacobite Rebellion when Bonnie Prince Charlie had launched an invasion of England from Scotland. Justerini was just one of the many migrants who had flocked to the city; he was in pursuit of love while most others merely sought food and work. Thousands were poverty-stricken farm labourers, forced off the land by the mass evictions that arose as a result of the Inclosure Acts. Like them, in order to stay in London, he needed work. While they sought survival, he was after much more – Margherita's affections. However, Justerini had something most lacked, a sought-after skill and trade.

Justerini was a master blender and an experienced distiller of 'Strong Waters', such as curacao, crème de menthe and crème de cacao. He could also make 'Cordial Waters' like walnut water, rose water and stag's heartwater (an infusion of various flowers, mace, cinnamon, orange peel and a stag's heart infused in wine). He wanted to set up his own business to mimic that of his uncle's back in Bologna, but he needed backing.

Italian Opera was becoming all the rage with London's high society and in pursuit of Margherita, Justerini spent much of his time at the Italian Opera House dressed in one of the few good suits he owned. The Opera House sat on Haymarket near the corner with Pall Mall and such was the patronage of Italian opera that it was renamed The King's Theatre [from 1867 it wold become Her Majesty's Theatre in honour of Queen Victoria].

Although only from a middle-class family, his Italian accent disguised his upbringing and at the opera house he mixed with the English aristocracy. Through Margherita's theatrical friends, Justerini was introduced to George Johnson who invested some of his fortune and took charge of the administration of their new partnership. They set up shop, with Justerini's infusion vessels in the basement, at No. 76 Haymarket, just down the road from the opera house.

Johnson and Justerini

Through their proximity to the opera house and connection with the fashionable operatic world, they built a business selling port, sherry, wines from France and Italy, alongside Justerini's own libations to London's wealthy gentry.

In 1756, after what has been a brief period of peace, Britain one again declared war after the French took the previously British controlled island of Minorca. The Seven Years War that followed was fought across four continents. The import duties levied by the British government to help fund the war, coupled with the fighting centred around the very wine-producing areas of Europe they sourced their wine from proved challenging for Johnson and Justerini. However, perhaps not always strictly legitimately, the resourceful pair found ways to run the blockades and smuggled their precious liquid wares to London.

During every war there are winners and losers, and so successful were these English and Italian partners in continuing to keep London's gentry supplied with wine and their own liqueurs (strong and cordial waters) that by 1760 Justerini was able to return home to Bologna a retired wealthy man. Whether or not he did so with the beautiful Margherita or returned alone is not recorded, but the place as partner in the successful company he left behind was filled by Johnson's son Augustus. The year after the Italian who'd started the business left, the company was awarded its first Royal Warrant.

It's worth remembering that the "J" in J&B stands for Justerini. Even though the company was now run by Johnson and Johnson (George and his son Augustus) their company retained its Justerini name. This and the firm's early connection to whisky is recorded in the advertisement the firm, "Johnson and Justerini" ran in the Morning Post on 17th June 1779 (19 years after Justerini's retirement) informing "the nobility and gentry" that along with "an extensive variety of Liqueurs" they also offered "Usquebaugh" (Usquebaugh being the Irish and Scottish words for what would become better known in English as whisky).

In 1785, Augustus Johnson's son, Augustus II, replaced his grandfather as partner in the family firm after George Johnson was knocked down and killed by a runaway horse when returning from taking an order from the Duke of Queensberry. Despite the unlikely demise of Augustus and then the neighbouring Opera House burning down in 1789, the firm of Johnson and Justerini continued to prosper. The Opera House was rebuilt and with it the surrounding buildings redeveloped so that when the new Opera House was completed in 1820 so Johnson and Justerini's shop address became number 2, The Colonnade.

Johnson hands over to Brooks

The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) over, Britain was in a period of calm, but this would be upset by the industrial revolution. Mechanical innovations brought dramatic change to all industries and Aeneas Coffey's invention of the continuous column or patent still dramatically impacted the whisky industry.

Up till this point, Scotch whisky was exclusively what we now call "single malt whisky" but these malts were crude compared to whiskies today and they tended to be marketed to the military while the gentry sipped on imported brandy, port, sherry, madeira and wine. The new Coffey stills were not only more efficient and produced much larger quantities of spirit than the traditional pot stills (used to make malt whisky) but the grain whisky the Coffey stills made was much lighter in style. Recognising this, Andrew Usher revolutionised the whisky industry by blending pot-distilled malt whisky and Coffey-distilled grain whisky to produce the first blended whiskies.

In the story of Justerini & Brooks and its J&B whisky, 1831 is a key year. This was not only when Aeneas Coffey invented the still that made the production of J&B whisky possible but, 82 years after his grandfather had founded the company with Giacomo Justerini, Augustus Johnson II retired and sold his family's firm to Alfred Brooks. Brooks was a Bordeaux and Burgundy oenophile who changed the company's name to Justerini & Brooks.

Why the new English owner kept the Italian "Justerini" name rather than "Johnson" could be due to the importance of 'Foreign Cordials' to the company and the lingering connection with their original maker. Whatever his reason for retaining the name, Alfred Brooks was an ostentatious member of the aristocracy who purchased Justerini & Brooks mainly due to the company's access to fine wines with which to impress his friends. He didn't work in the business and entrusted its running to Thomas Walker, a trusted employee of the previous owner.

Britain's industrial age of steam created a wealthy middle class of industrialists and so a larger client base for Justerini & Brooks resulting in the company's continued growth and prosperity under Thomas Walker's management. Steamships made exports to the newly independent States possible and Walker appointed a New York agent in the 1840s.

It was these same steamships that helped transport the Phylloxera aphid from America to devastate French vineyards during the 1860s until the mid-1870s when vineyard owners started crafting Phylloxera resistant American rootstock to their vines. Amid supply issues caused by the aphid, Justerini & Brooks little shop was also hit by devastation in 1867 when the adjoining opera house, now called His Majesty's Theatre, was once again burnt to the ground. The south front of the Colonnade was saved but the Justerini & Brooks shop at No. 2 was flooded with water from the firehoses with everything inside also covered in a layer of soot. The constant noise and dust that followed from the rebuilding work proved another challenge, but the business survived and prospered.

As the aphid was reaping destruction across Europe's vineyards so it was also becoming more fashionable to drink Claret, the English name for red wine from Bordeaux. Alfred Brooks was only too happy to direct his wealthy friends to Justerini & Brooks to stock the cellars of their estates. As supplies of young clarets dwindled so Alfred Brooks' major share of wine stocks in London increased in value leading to his comfortable retirement in 1876.

Justerini & Brooks was taken over by Alfred Brooks' son-in-law William Cole, a "typical Victorian figure" complete with beard, religious convictions, and a love of shooting as a pastime. Partly thanks to his wife's inheritance, he was also very wealthy and viewed owning a fine wine and spirits company as much a lifestyle choice as it was an entrepreneurial investment. Like the previous owner, Cole was reliant on Thomas Walker to run his newly acquired enterprise and a year later made Walker (no relation to Johnnie Walker) a partner in the firm.

The Victorian era

Prince Albert bought Balmoral Castle for Queen Victoria in 1852 and her love of Scotland was infectious for her English subjects. Scotland became fashionable with wealthy industrialists investing in hunting, shooting and fishing estates and so important was the stocking of Scottish estate cellars that Justerini & Brooks shipped wine directly from Bordeaux to the docks of Leith in Edinburgh.

By the 1880s the fashion for all things Scottish was at its peak and this came at a time when the Phylloxera louse was dramatically impacting the availability of wine and brandy (the British gentry's spirit of choice). The timing was perfect for whisky blenders such as Johnnie Walker and Tommy Dewar who recognised the demand but also recognised that their products needed to stand out from the mass of other suppliers capitalising from the new trend. They're blends of both single malt and grain whiskies were more refined.

This was also the age when branding emerged as a way for one company to distinguish and promote their product over that of its competitors. Bass & Company, the British brewery pioneered such marketing by applying its red triangle to casks of its Pale Ale, a trademark issued in 1876, the first such mark issued by the British government. Johnnie Walker, Tommy Dewar and the other great whisky barons were quick to recognise the benefits of branding and marketing their blended whiskies.

Meanwhile, Justerini and Brooks continued their stock-in-trade, as reputable wine merchants to the gentleman's clubs and theatre-going gentry. William Cole and Thomas Walker didn't capitalise on the trend for whisky, perhaps considering it a passing phase. However, they were one of the first London merchants to acquire "old bonded stocks" in Scotland which they simply re-labelled Justerini and Brooks.

The foundations of J&B Rare

William Cole and Thomas Walker may not have been so interested in the sourcing of their scotch whisky as they were Bordeaux wines but they hit lucky as their supplier was J.G. Thomson & Co., then Scotland's leading wine merchant. It's likely that the wines Justerini and Brooks shipped directly from France had for years passed through J.G. Thomson's vaults in Edinburgh, hence there was a long-established relationship between the London and Edinburgh companies.

J.G. Thomson was named after James Gibson Thomson who, in 1875 brought three partners into his firm: James Anderson and brothers, John (later Sir John) and Andrew Usher. Tellingly, Andrew Usher later become known as the "Father of Blended Whisky" due to his being the first person to commercially blend malt and grain whisky (in 1860). In 1876, a year after bringing the three partners into his firm, James Anderson became the senior partner.

Andrew Usher not only used grain whisky to mellow malt whiskies in his blends, but he tended to use Speyside malt whiskies due to their being lighter in style. So, the whisky re-labelled Justerini & Brooks was mellow and light. This whisky, blended by Usher and supplied to Justerini & Brooks by J.G. Thomson, became known as Justerini and Brooks 'Club' whisky. The light style of this 'Club' whisky would later influence the creation of J&B Rare.

Anderson's partnership in J. G. Thomson linked him with both the Ushers and Speyside whiskies. He also had close connections with the Newbigging family, who co-owned Cockburn's of Leith, and their retail wine trade. The Andersons and Newbiggings would together greatly influence Justerini & Brooks, and with it the world of whisky.

The Andersons and Newbiggings

In 1889, William Cole died and his son Alfred inherited his interests in Justerini & Brooks so became partner with Thomas Walker. Cole was a director of the Bank of England and later its Governor so perhaps not that interested in the company he'd inherited, while the ageing Walker was ready to retire. So, in 1900 they sold Justerini & Brooks for £60,000. The Chairman, and the largest shareholder, of the company formed in order to purchase Justerini's was Alexander Cecil Newbigging and his co-directors were George Bird, James Anderson and his son Hugh Anderson.

Hugh Anderson is joined in this story by his brother Herbert who progressed from partner to director and finally Chairman of J. G. Thomson from 1911 to 1929. The two brothers were at the centre of both the family whisky business and their London wine merchants. As the First World War upturned Europe, both brothers joined the fighting as Army officers.

Towards the end of the war, Hugh Anderson met Eddie Tatham, a junior officer who author Dennis Wheatley described as being 'tall, fair, good looking, with enormous charm and a delightful wit'. His charm and wit obviously impressed Hugh Anderson as immediately after the war, in 1918, Eddie Tatham joined Justerini & Brooks.

Like so many others, Eddie partied his way through the post-war era. While other Justerini employees worked their old boys' network, Eddie mingled with the younger Mayfair set and the stars of stage and screen. He was something of an impresario and counted stars such as Fred Astaire and Gary Cooper amongst his friends. Eddie's salesmanship and contacts led to his being invited to join the Board, and in 1926 he was made a director of Justerini & Brooks.

During the winter of 1929 into 1930, it was obvious that sales in Britain would drop due to the impact of the Great Depression, so with the support of his friend, the new Chairman, Hugh Anderson, Eddie hatched a plan to sell wine and whisky in America. The fact that America was under Prohibition made this an audacious, potentially foolhardy plan but he set sail for America.

The influence of rivals

Eddie's plan was almost certainly influenced by the success Justerini's nearby competitors, Berry Brothers & Rudd, was enjoying in America. Berry's had an established US market prior to Prohibition and they had built on this during Prohibition thanks to a rum runner called Captain McCoy. His cargo was famously termed the 'real McCoy' due to his reputation for only carrying unadulterated cargo.

McCoy sailed his large ships from Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, to just outside the twelve-mile limit off the American coast. Nicknamed the Rum Line, this was just outside the reach of the American Coastguard. From here he would off-load his cargo of Berry Brothers' Cutty Sark whisky onto smaller boats to be distributed to speakeasies across America's East Coast. Dark whisky was often caramelised to hide the taste of illicit still production and inadequate maturation while Cutty Sark whisky was pale in colour, light in style, so considered the 'real McCoy'.

Eddie travelled around the key cities of America's east coast taking orders for wine and liquor from what Reuter's later reported as being "like the dream guest list of a new-rich hostess." Backed by a syndicate, Eddie's plan was to copy McCoy and ship goods from Canada and England to outside the Rum Line where yachts would meet the ships to take the illicit liquor ashore. Yachts were seldom examined by the Customs agents due to the smugglers usually operating highspeed boats.

In May 1930, just days before New York's Chrysler building opened and ironically the day before a poll of Americans showed the majority wanted Prohibition repealed, Eddie was arrested boarding a train at Grand Central Station bound for Canada "as a bootlegger of vision and genius" so a New York newspaper reported on May 24th. It went on to say that he "had plotted a scheme to provide America's best families and most exclusive yacht clubs and yachtsmen with a grade A liquor."

Eddie was held on bail, awaiting trial on a charge of conspiracy to violate the Prohibition laws but an agreement was reached with the Federal Attorney for him to travel home on a bail of 25,000 dollars (£5,000) to return to stand trial in October.

Justerini and Brooks continued to support Eddie and pay his legal fees, costing the firm nearly 20% of its profits, even covering his expenses which must have included that unused train ticket. He was however asked to resign from the board on 4th June 1930, so continued as an employee rather than a director.

Eddie's adventures were dealt another blow when his friend and supporter, the Chairman, Hugh Anderson, died in August 1930. Newbigging, who Eddie never saw eye to eye with, returned as Chairman.

Letters from Justerini's New York lawyers show that even by September 1931 Eddie was expected to wait at least two years before the case against him might be dropped.

The birth of J&B Rare

Eddie's hopes of building a new business based on Americans' preference for paler, lighter blended Scotch had been dealt a blow but Justerini & Brooks would become a fierce competitor for Berry Brothers & Rudd's Cutty Sark whisky and this came about after Eddie was joined by two new allies at the firm.

The first was Ralph Cobbold who was from a well-healed East Anglian banking and brewing family but had turned down managing his family's wine interests within the brewery due to his being independently minded. He was also an inveterate gambler and playboy. At Justerini & Brooks he became Eddie's protégé, continuing the style of salesmanship.

Eddie and Ralph Cobbold's exploits would have been curtailed if it weren't for the arrival of Kenneth Murray as new Chairman in September 1931. An Edinburgh lawyer who'd been badly injured in World War I, he was the family lawyer for both the Newbiggings and the Andersons. Murray arrived at a time when profits had dropped by 25% with the onset of the Great Depression and the firm still had to cover the continuing costs of Eddie's American lawyers.

Justerini & Brooks needed to boost its profits and, sometime in 1932 with Ralph Cobbold's backing, Eddie persuaded the new chairman that his vision of a light whisky blend aimed at the American market was the answer.

To create his new whisky, Eddie sought out and appointed Charlie Julian, the Master Blender behind Chivas Regal. Unusually for a blender, Charlie was a Londoner rather than a Scot, who'd learnt his trade by starting as a 'sample boy' tidying the room where the blenders worked.

Charlie had been working for the whisky firm of Portal, Dingwall and Norris and perhaps had some 'borrowed' samples of theirs when he started work on Justerini & Brooks' new whisky in the cellars of 52 to 56 Weston Street, Bermondsey, London.

The company's existing, already light 'Club' whisky was used as a starting point, as was the fact that due to Justerini & Brooks' shareholders, the new whisky blend would have to be supplied through J. G. Thomson. By the time the recipe was perfected, sometime in 1932, what was christened Justerini and Brooks Rare Old contained 42 whiskies, 40% of which were malts. As established by Andrew Usher and James Anderson in the company's Club whisky, importantly the blend was built around Speyside whiskies.

Building the market for J&B Rare

American Prohibition ended in 1933, the year after the Justerini and Brooks Rare Old blend was created. However, it wasn't until 1936 that the right man to deliver the American market enters the story of J&B Rare in the form of Charlie Guttman.

Charlie Guttman was an Irishman who grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side and during Prohibition had been an enforcement officer. As soon Prohibition ended, he set about using his contacts and experience in New York's alcohol market and went into business with Jake Culhane, a Jewish businessman who recognised the value of Guttman's insider knowledge. They set up The Buckingham Corporation, named after Buckingham Palace, and secured the New York agency for Cutty Sark Whisky.

The Buckingham Corporation was very successful at selling Cutty Sark but after a falling out Charlie Guttman walked away from the partnership. This led Charlie to travel to London to conclude his business with Berry Brothers & Rudd. It was from their offices on St James's that he walked the short distance to meet an old acquaintance who'd invited him for a drink if ever he was in London. His destination was Justerini's offices at No.2 Pall Mall where he met with Eddie Tatham. Eddie agreed to supply Charlie with the new Justerini and Brooks Rare Old whisky, the blend which would soon outsell Cutty Sark.

Charlie's former business with Jake Culhane was named after Buckingham Palace and as he walked out the offices of Justerini & Brooks he wondered what to call his new venture. Legend has it, that at this moment, a Number 15 double-decker bus with the destination 'Paddington' passed. Thus, it was the Paddington Corporation that became US agent for J&B Rare.

The case against him dropped, Eddie visited the States regularly after December 1932 to help Charlie build the market for the new blend.

Bitter over the break-up of his partnership with Culhane and their Buckingham Corporation, Charlie was driven to beat Cutty Sark with the new blend. It's thought to be at his instigation that Justerini and Brooks Rare Old was renamed J&B Rare and the previous drab fawn coloured label replaced with a yellow one, a similar colour to that of Cutty Sark. Surely not a coincidence. Both brands also share similarly distinctive green bottles but the Brooks Rare Old blend was already in this bottle.

While most Scotch whiskies are proudly linked to Scottish origins, J&B stood out as being unconventional, blended in London by a Londoner for a London wine merchant and emblazoned with the initials of an Italian and an Englishman.

Today, J&B Rare is the world's 6th bestselling scotch whisky while Cutty Sark languishes in 23rd place.