In the south of Scotland, not far from Edinburgh there is a town called Stirling. Just on the outskirts of Stirling, around three miles east, there is a village called Menstrie. In the small unassuming village of Menstrie there is a house. This house is much like many other houses in the area, probably around 100 years old, probably around five bedrooms, probably home to a small middle class family.

But this house is not home to a small middle class family, or a large middle class family for that matter. Neither doesn’t have any bedrooms, or rooms that anyone sleeps in, that is.

No this house is special. It is special because it is managed by a crack team of four individuals, nay guaridans, who are sworn to catalogue, research, acquire and protect the Diageo archives.

What are the Diageo archives?

The archives are collections, records, memorabilia, portraits, adverts, bottles, documents and accounts that together make up the histories of the Diageo brands – Gordon’s, Tanqueray, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Booth’s, Gilbey’s and countless single malt whiskeys.

Upon entering it seems like any other house, besides the enviable cocktail book collection in the main drawing room. It’s not until you descend the stairs into the climate controlled archive room that the magnitude of the collection hits you. Row upon row of cabinets holding company records dating well back into the 19th century and sometimes 18th centuries.

Vintage bottles of spirits that you’re unlikely to even see on eBay due to their rarity. Original portraits of brand founders such as Alexander Gordon and pre Russian Revolution Smirnoff artifacts.  Hand written recipe books by Alexander Walker II and the only document in existence that shows the signature of one ‘John Walker’. I would estimate the value of the entire archive collection in the hundred’s of millions of pounds ball park.

Jo is one of the archive curators and she took us on a tour of some of the most interesting historical items. Jo is one of the few people I have met who shows the same kind of passion and enthusiasm for the history of the brands (particularly gin in her case) as us ambassadors. Regrettably Christine, who is the manager of the building, was not there. I would have like to have quizzed on her some Smirnoff stuff, as it is reputably her specialist subject!

Back upstairs we visited two separate bottle rooms, holding mostly unopened examples of pretty much every bottle produced by the brands featured. Original 1924 pre-mixed Gordon’s cocktail bottles (who said ‘Hooch’ was the first alcopop?!) and all six of the Pimms cups together again. One of the most interesting pieces is a very old Johnnie Walker bottle that for some unknown reason holds an entire snake! One of the possible explanations for this relates to a tradition of putting a snake in the bottle of the first product produced by a new distillery.

Needless to say there is a huge amount of interesting stuff at the archives, far to much to feature everything. Do take a look at the Flickr set for some more pictures and if there are any specifics you would like to know about just ask.

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