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Johnnie Walker
Scotland
Blended
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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.
Really like this blended whiskey as good as a few malts, my new favourite
JWBL used to be about as close to a standard affordable stalwart as....well as almost every single whisky in Scotland until the psycho CEO class decided that nobody would notice if they ripped the heart out of their products and replaced them with dreck! I have changed the drams I buy several times over the years, as more and more beloved whiskies have been mutilated. One heartbreaking example was Ballantine's 17 year old. I badly miss Lagavulin 16. They sell whisky called Lagavulin 16, but it is emphatically NOT Lagavulin 16. It no longer exists. There are some bright lights of course. We know who they are. God Bless Them. Like many of the non-paid, experienced reviewers on this website, I have been drinking JWBL since The Eighties. This whisky has been criminally mistreated for many years, but every now and then I buy a bottle....just to see how bad things have become. I do the same with Big Macs....just to remind myself that I hate them. Now I don't know whether it is my imagination, or whether I have become so unused to drinking Black Label that I can't actually remember what it tastes like, but the couple of bottles I have bought this year have actually been pleasant. I live in an Asian megacity. I don't know whether that is relevant. And there is a shop not too far away from me that sells vintage Blue Label. (!) But I am drinking a just-bought measure of JWBL right now and the only thing it seems to be lacking is the oily mouthfeel that we know and love and touch of depth. Perhaps previous bottling have been so utterly pathetic that I have set the bar too low for a valid opinion? I eagerly await a response from the MoM community. :-)
When this stuff was 43% it was very, very good as far as a 12-year-old Blended Whisky goes. It is not the same whisky regardless of it being 3% weaker. I suspect management have thought:- No one drinks Black Label straight anymore, let's reformulate it to be a "premium mixer".
I consider JW Black to be an excellent, neat drinking whisky, which is, perhaps, best not over-analysed. I can understand why some whisky ‘experts’ on these pages are rather dismissive of it due to it’ rather uncomplicated taste. However, I enjoy it and I have never known anyone turn their nose up at it, when handed a dram. It is usually to be found ‘on offer’ at one of the major supermarkets in my area. I have bought several bottles in the last year at a good reduction on the price shown above. I consider it to be a bargain as I can afford to be generous when sharing it with whisky drinking friends which, for me, is what it’s all about.
I'm an old Scotch guy -- Scotch being the poison I picked decades ago, and reformed single malt snob -- partial to the Islays. Not long ago at a not s' well-stocked watering hole I found myself in need of a dram. Black was the best they had on offer. Okay -- what the hell? Blown away. Love at first nip. Quick! To my phone! To see if it's okay to like the stuff and order it in front of pals! I see world renowned whisk(e)y guy, Jim Murray, raves about it. Gives it a 94! TOTALLY agree with his bang-on assessment of this liquid. This stuff is a litmus test. IF you like this perfect "ancient" (1909) blend, you know your Scotch. IF you poo poo it? You're probably still in your single malt phase. You'll outgrow it -- eventually. I neither do nosings nor spout off imaginary tasting notes of this and that I never seem to detect. (Smells like -- hooch! Tastes like -- Scotch!) BUT if I was, I'd say it noses of raisins, and it tastes like chocolate covered sour cherries. Delicious. It's mercifully not too sweet (which some single malts are to the point of cloying, especially the Speysides, though Islays often are too once you get past the upfront smoke). Here is the beauty of this blend: the 12 year old grain whiskeys lighten things up and smooth out the finish (to the point it's dangerous) admittedly at the expense of a somewhat lighter mouthfeel while toning down the cloying cotton candy sweetness of pure malts whilst at the same time bringing the price back down to earth. Maybe they were on to something back in 1909. I'd argue they "fixed" single malts. Like I said 1000 words ago in this rant, I'm a reformed single malt snob. Oh -- and it has an honest-t'-goodness respectable 12 yr age statement! Something else it has over the singles in this sad "another day another NAS Scotch release" era we're now in.