Johnnie Walker, Green Label
Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
15 years old, 43% alcohol
As my children finally drift off to sleep it occurs to me that, on this occasion, I have not fallen asleep on the floor beside them, which means that my plan to drink a glass of whisky this evening should be achievable. I return from the kitchen to the living room carrying the gin and tonic that I have lovingly-prepared for my wife, who is sitting expectantly on the sofa. I present the glass to her and she gratefully accepts. Just after the children had fallen asleep (and before I went to the kitchen) I had the foresight to pour myself a glass of whisky to give it a little time to settle in the glass. It waits invitingly for me on the sideboard next to the sofa. This week I have been feeling quite nostalgic and have been listening to quite a lot of guitar music from the Manchester bands I have enjoyed over the years. This evening I have decided to listen to ‘I am Kloot’. This is a perfect image of what I expected my adult life to be like and a very nice start to the weekend.
Johnnie Walker produces blended Scotch whisky. In the fiveish years that I have been drinking whisky, this is the first blend I have bought. My previous lack of understanding of the subject meant that I thought blended whisky was simply a poor quality mixture that diluted good whisky with something of much lower quality to produce something cheap and in large quantities. I assumed that blends didn’t taste good enough to be enjoyed neat and could therefore only be used in a cocktail. I always thought of Johnnie Walker as the whisky you get on aeroplanes. I was very ignorant to say the least.
The true connoisseur, of course, drinks single malt whisky. But Johnnie Walker Green Label is blended exclusively from single malt whiskies, of which four very well-known single malts: Caol Ila, Cragganmore, Linkwood and Talisker, representing four of the different Scottish whisky-producing regions, are constituent parts. And to complete the picture, the bottle tells me that this is a 15 year old blended whisky, which means that each of the single malts must have been maturing in barrels for at least 15 years.
This therefore raises the question: If single malts are really so much better than blended whiskies, why would you take four perfectly good single malts and blend them? I did a bit of research and found that 15 year old versions of whiskies from these four distilleries would cost me between 70€ - 120€. My bottle of Johnnie Walker Green Label cost me just 33€. It’s all starting to get a little confusing. Before I get too confused I decide to have a drink.
As always I smell the whisky in the glass first. I describe the smell as earthy. It is a rich smell that is a little bit sweet and a little bit smoky. As I take a sip I experience a very smooth drink with an almost syrupy texture. It’s fairly sweet to begin with and then a smokiness comes through. It’s not like drinking a heavily-peated whisky but there is definitely a smoky element there, which I assume comes mainly from the Talisker and perhaps also from the Caol Ila whiskies in the blend. I find the smoky element fairly subtle at first but it really adds to the flavour. The tasting experience ends with a lingering sweet smokiness. It’s really nice.
I had a look at the tasting notes for the Green Label on the Johnnie Walker website. As I live in Germany it directed me to the German website but I decided to switch to the UK website, as I was feeling a little too tired after the working week to read everything in German. But strangely, the tasting notes were different on the two sites. In Germany I should be smelling cut grass, fresh fruit, pepper, rich vanilla and sandalwood. In the UK I should only expect to smell earthy aromas of light garden fruits married with florals. I don’t really take too much notice of this stuff but I was impressed that the word “earthy” was actually used in the official tasting notes, as I had also come up with this word. I must be getting better at this. Anyway I surmise that in Germany you can expect to smell and taste far more than in the UK. I guess Germans must have much more advanced senses of taste and smell than us Brits. In both countries you can expect to taste wood notes, although in Germany these will be ‘deep’ and in the UK they will be ‘rich’. I don’t know if I can honestly taste these wood notes. In fact I’m not sure what wood notes taste like but, as my whisky has been maturing in wooden barrels for at least 15 years, I take it as a given that wood has probably left a note or two in there somewhere.
I just want to mention that I really quite like the Johnnie Walker website. They put a lot of emphasis on just enjoying your whisky in whatever way you choose, which really makes sense to me. They make a lot of suggestions of things to try but never tell you what you must do. If you get a chance, check it out - especially the ‘how to drink your whisky’ guidance pages.
After another couple of sips I realise that this is exactly how I imagined a good whisky should taste. In fact it tastes so good that it further confuses me and I convince myself I must be missing something.
In times of confusion I often make an analogy, and more often than not, this analogy is based on music. Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison have, between them, produced some of the best music ever written. One may assume that if you were to bring all four of them together, the musical result should also be pretty good. I do actually quite like the music of the Traveling Wilburys. It is different from the music of the individual artists but undoubtedly contains characteristics of each of their styles. It is certainly not better than the solo material but it is just a different way to enjoy their music. Although the music is not actually as spectacular as you may expect, the fact that these great musicians have come together to produce something is very exciting and has created a very appealing brand. And this kind of helped me understand what’s happening with this whisky. Individually these must be four excellent whiskies, that would all sell pretty well in their single malt form. But bringing them together under the name of Johnnie Walker Green Label produces a brand that is much more exciting and has much more mass appeal. The Johnnie Walker brand is known worldwide and the whiskies in their blended form will therefore be experienced by many more people. So I think that the Traveling Wilburys was probably as much about creating an exciting brand as it was about creating exciting music and the same principal is perhaps true in the case of Johnnie Walker Green Label.
As I continue drinking, the whisky tastes better and better. It’s almost like this whisky has been programmed to deliver all the right tastes and smells at exactly the right times. As soon as the sweet smokiness has faded away following each sip, I am ready for another. It occurs to me that this is essentially what a blended whisky is and that this is exactly what the master blenders are trying to achieve. They’ve done well in this case!
The room falls silent as the last track from I am Kloot comes to an end. I still have some whisky in my glass so I decide to listen to some more music. I was so taken with my Traveling Wilburys analogy that I decide to listen to them. Just as I thought, their music is definitely not as good as the music produced by the individual artists. I find myself a little disappointed that I can’t truly complete my analogy, as unfortunately I have not sampled the four named single malts that make up the Johnnie Walker Green Label. Given the amount of money I suspect I would have to spend on these bottles, I think it is unlikely I will be sampling them any time soon. However what I expect is that these four single malts each represent something of extreme quality that you would reserve for special occasions. I would hope and expect that, given their price, they would taste even better than the whisky I am currently drinking. When blended together they produce something that is exciting and different - taking a little of the best from each component. I hope that somebody had fun producing this whisky as I have really enjoyed drinking it.
Before I finish I should apologise to Jeff Lynne, who I obviously left out of my analogy. It’s just that there are four named single malts in the Johnnie Walker Green Label, but five Traveling Wilburys so I had to leave one out. Jeff drew the short straw, as he is the one I know least about.
While finishing this review, I realised that this is not the first blended whisky I have bought. While I was browsing the shelves of Lidl a year or two ago, I noticed a bottle of three year old blended whisky that I had heard a positive review of and was on sale for just 7€. I poured myself a glass and had a taste, but I found it fairly unpleasant and had to tip the rest away. However it does taste pretty good when mixed with ice and ginger ale. I like things that follow rules or expected patterns of behaviour so knowing that this very cheap bottle of whisky did not actually taste very nice was a relief to me. If it had tasted really good then I guess I would have kept buying it and never spent more money on delicious whiskies like the Johnnie Walker Green Label.
Score: 8.5/10
Reviewed by Peter on 09 May 2021
While drinking I was listening to ‘Let It All In’ by I am Kloot.