Johnny Walker Black Label - The Safe Haven

Johnny Walker Black Label is a 12-year-old blended Scotch. So what does that mean?

For starters, it means all the constituent whiskies have spent at least 12 years aging in wooden barrels, most likely oak. Since it's blended, it means that the whisky in the bottle is a mix of the products of many different  distilleries (several places online claim that about 40 whiskies go into the making of Black Label) .

And finally, since it doesn't advertise itself as a pure malt whisky, it means that whisky made from other grains, such as wheat, corn or rye are involved in the blend as well.

There are two reasons to blend whiskies like this:

• To create rich, complex whisky based on the interplay of flavors;


• To cut costs (usually the reason for the addition of non barley malt whiskies).

Blended scotch has gotten a bad rap among single malt fanciers, because all cheap scotch is blended, and makes liberal use of the non-barley grains. And cheap scotch is generally really bad scotch.

However, blended scotch doesn't have to be wretched. A talented master distiller can mix up a tasty, complex dram using the interplay of flavors from various distilleries as point, counterpoint, highlight and base.

In fact, if you're not buying single barrel whisky, your bottle of single malt (or bourbon or rye) is a blend  of various barrels from that distillery's warehouses, chosen and mixed by the master distiller to produce the consistent signature flavor of that expression. Otherwise, given that different barrels at different places in the warehouse age differently, as well as the effects of weather on the aging process, the final product would be wildly inconsistent.

So, where does Johnny Walker Black Label fall on the crap-to-gold continuum  of blended scotch?

For me, it's definitely drinkable straight, unlike its younger brother, Red Label. That immediately elevates well above most blended scotch.

Black Label is bottled at 80 proof (40% abv), which means it's slightly more watered down from cask strength than most single malts, which are generally bottled at 86 proof ( 43% abv). Even so, I prefer to drink it with a splash of water to open up the flavors.

The nose doesn't give me much, a little sugar, a little oak. It's got decent weight on the tongue, even with the water.

Flavor-wise, there's some honey, some peat, some oak. Black Label has a moderately long finish, with hints of oak and peat and caramel late in the game.

If you sense a lack of wild enthusiasm there, you'd be correct. Black Label is decent enough, and it has the advantage of being almost ubiquitous world-wide. That makes it sort of a safe haven for a scotch drinker - a tolerable dram you can find almost anywhere you end up.

What it does not do for me, is excite me. The flavor is muted compared to a good single malt, or a pure malt blended scotch made from a smaller number of  whiskies, like the Johnny Walker Green Label. It just doesn't have much character.

And, frankly, given the price, it doesn't offer a compelling value. For about the same price, you can pick up a bottle of Highland Park single malt,  Old Pulteney single malt, or  Bowmore single malt, or, if you like bourbon, a bottle of Woodforde Reserve, or Willett Pot Still, all of which have more interesting character and flavor. For significantly less, you can get a bottle of Old Weller Antique Bourbon, which matches or betters Black Label, in my opinion.

Go another $5 to $10 higher, and you start being able to buy things such as Macallan 12-year-old single malt or the Balvenie Double Wood single malt, or Dalwhinnie 15-year-old single malt: all of which a far more interesting drams than Black Label.

If you offer me a glass of Johnny Walker Black Label, I won't refuse it, and I'll enjoy sipping it. But this is not a whisky I would ever seek out, unless the bar was bereft of anything better.