Blended
Scotland
Johnnie Walker Black Label has a long history. It dates back to the late 19th century when John Walker & Sons of Kilmarnock had three blends in ascending order of age and price: Old Highland, Special Old Highland, and Extra Special Old Highland. These had white, red, and black labels respectively, and were known by their colour. Then in 1906, the three blends were relaunched as White Label, a five year old, Red Label, a nine year old, and Black Label, a 12 year old.
While Red Label would lose its age statement and White Label disappear altogether, Black Label is still a 12 year old blend – though it did go through a phase without an age statement. Its prestige status was trumped with the launch of the super swanky Blue Label in the late 1980s, but Black Label has never lost its cache. Across the world today, a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label is a recognised currency and symbol of excellence.
The classic 12 Year Old Black Label is a blend majoring on Diageo’s Four Corners of Scotland distilleries Clynelish in the Highlands, Cardhu on Speyside, malt from Glenknichie and grain from Cameronbridge with a little smoke from Caol Ila.
Winter spice and treacle, hints of white pepper and a little citrus.
Rich and full with notes of wood smoke and dry spice, hints of barley and cereal with creamy toffee and a distinct herbal note.
Quite fruity and long with a note of sultanas and mixed peels.

I bought the 2 Lt. of 12 years J.W black label from Chicago airport duty free.on 16th. April 2015. I was surprised with the bad test of the whisky, I still have not opened the second one ,which is still with me. I wish I have an explanation for that, as it is my Favorite for the last 40 years. Thank you Respectfully Fuad Garabet
i tried jameson .. tullamore dew .. ballantine .. chivas .. red gold blue double black label .. Black label is the top of all of these whiskeys .. The king kong of the whiskey world !
Keep it handy in your bar when the single malts run out.
Question: How do the guys at Johnnie Walker manage to produce millions of litres of exactly the same quality of Black Label each year ? Answer: Of course they don't manage to do this. How could they ? Indeed, I have come to love Johnnie Walker Black Label at home (Germany) as a standard drink of very decent quality and great value. But many times when I am travelling, I come across JWBL drams which I hardly recognize. For instance only recently when I bought a 0,5l plastic bottle at the travel value shop at Frankfurt Airport. If my favorite bottle shop at home had sold me such an un-peaty uninteresting bottle, I would not have looked at the stuff again. I have a feeling that the 43% version of JWBL is the minor one. Anybody know the difference between the 40% version which I like and the 43% version which disappointed me ?
This is the "go to." Laphroig, Lagavulin, Talisker, Cardhu ( certainly tasted in JWB) are great, so are the Sherry, etc.(I.e., MacCallan)(not really Scotch but great), but JWB is the price point and the quality to which all should be measured. Hitchens was "dead on" on this one.