Johnnie walker's new Scotch labels

Anyone who has a daily commute into the city has by now noticed the signs and billboards that announced the coming of Johnnie Walker’s new product Johnnie Walker Double Black. Now I am not inherently a fan of Johnnie Walker’s whiskey but when the largest scotch company in the world decides to throw its weight behind a new product it’s enough to catch my interest.
Thus when I received an email about a Johnnie Walker tasting, I happily made the trek to Jersey City with my wife and brother-in-law to see what all the hype was about.
Now it’s important to remember that deep down in my soul I am a marketing guy and so I view these types of events for what they are…an attempt to garner good PR. To this end these product sponsored parties or tastings are often fairly cheesy however even though the attempted to market Johnnie Walker products were not even slightly veiled they did manage to do it with an air of class and dare I say even subtly.
I chose to go with the Black and Ginger, and for one of the first times in my life, I could not finish an alcoholic drink. After milling about for half an hour we were ushered into a well-decorated room with seats situated around a large screen. From there the actual tasting began.
We began with their “executive” scotch, the Black Label, which is perhaps their most recognizable brand. From there we sampled the Double Black, which is surprisingly like the regular Black Label but with a deeper oaky flavor and a hint of smoke. The problem is that regardless of how tasty the front end single malt of the Double Black was, it could not mask the fact that it had been blended with a non-descript and fairly harsh “neutral” grain spirit.
This makes the whiskey burn and come off as astringent. The pitchman tried to explain that Johnnie Walker uses these neutral spirits like a blank canvas on which they paint the flavor of their whiskey. I prefer to look at the neutral spirit they use in their blends as an albatross that weighs them down and gives them a poor reputation amongst dedicated scotch drinkers.
To my surprise we were then asked to sample the Red Label, Johnnie Walker’s highest selling product, with Orangina, a half orange juice/half seltzer soda that is popular in Europe. The orange flavor and carbonation really play well with the whiskey and even though I will probably not ever order one at a bar or make another using Red Label it is a drink combination I will experiment with at home.
The last two scotches we sampled were the Gold and Blue Labels. Both of these whiskeys are Johnnie Walker’s premium brands and both of them suffer from the same issue that the Black and Double Black Label have. They may be good prior to blending but once they are given a treatment with the grain alcohol they lose their finesse and subtly. However I don’t want you to take away from this article that blended scotch is bad because it’s not.
There are a number of blended malts out there that are in fact delicious. Among them are two Johnnie Walker products, the Green Label and Johnnie Walker Swing. These two scotches are blends of single malt and do not use any of the neutral spirit that negatively colors the other Jonnie Labels. I am particularly fond of Green Label because of the depth of flavors it manages to contain.
I know many of you coinsures out there are going to scoff at my recommendation, but I do recommend keeping a bottle of Green on your shelf as an excellent example of how four distinct scotch varieties can be blended to create a unique flavor profile.

Zechariah Mehler is a widely published food writer and expert in social marketing. Follow him on Twitter @thekoshercritic