Origin: Scotland
Type: Blended Scotch Whisky
Strength: 40%ABV
Ageing casks: N/A
Chillfiltered: Yes
Additional coloring: Yes
Owner: Diageo
Average price: € 85.00
Official website: www.johnniewalker.com
Vote: 80/100
The Johnnie Walker blend offers experiences to suit all budgets, from the basic Red Label to more premium and expensive editions such as The John Walker, with a variety of shades in between to suit all tastes (and wallets).
And it is often colours that producers have relied on to distinguish different bottlings, from red to black, green, blue and, of course, gold.
Born in 1920, the Johnnie Walker Gold Label The Centenary Blend was also an 18-year-old, whose production was abandoned during the Second World War only to be resumed in 1992, until 2012 when it mutated into two different expressions, the Platinum with its age still declared and the Gold Label Reserve. We have to wait until 2017 to see the Platinum lose its precious metal connotation and switch to the current, more modest (so to speak) edition.
Also known as Ultimate, it’s a blend of 18 whiskies from as many distilleries (well below the 40 or so of the cheaper products), including Cardhu, Glen Elgin, Auchroisk and Blair Athol, and at the time of its launch a video was released in which Jim Beveridge evokes the origin of this expression.
Tasting notes
The bouquet is very reminiscent of the Gold Label: fresh and fruity, with lots of flowers, yellow peaches, apricots, orange, honey and almonds. One could say that it’s almost a photocopy of it, including the lemony note! However, I find it more oily, with an elegant waxiness enveloping the aromas, along with a slight presence of wood in the background.
It’s oily also on the palate, with an extra spicy push (nutmeg and a pinch of pepper), together with marzipan, vanilla, more fruit (yellow but also ripe apple), orange and honey. Some mottling on the sweet tones, with a vaguely marine mineral hint and a bitter note of nuts and rhubarb, which tends to prevail over the length.
The finish is quite long, with spices, vanilla, orange, wood and another bitter note.
An elegant and refined nose that unfortunately does not find support in the taste, which starts off very well but loses a little in time. If you drink it quickly, you might not notice it so much, but I expected a lot more.