Johnnie Walker Black Crate

At the Alameda Flea Market last Sunday, I stumbled upon a vintage wooden crate that used to store Johnnie Walker Black. There are always wooden crates around, but this one, with it’s two-toned color walking man, was especially cool.

Happy Holidays with Compass Box and Johnnie

What’s cool? Finding a vintage Johnnie Walker crate at a flea market.

What’s cooler? That vintage Johnnie Walker crate being cheap, having a two-tone walking man, and having it actually be related to San Francisco.

What’s da coolest? Aside from peeing your pants, the vintage Johnnie Walker crate acting as vintage decor so that there is no problem with the lovely lady I live with, in other words, providing me an opportunity to have more whisky displayed.  It totally counts as Catalog Living.

Win win situation all around. I’m guessing the crate is from the 1980s because of the Canada Dry Corporation mark, but I’m not sure. Anyone have an idea based on the front/back?  Maybe when that third street warehouse was active?

Canada Dry Corporation Warehouse in San Francisco

For the holidays, Pernod Ricard is suggesting their Chivas Regal 18 year old Gold Signature blended Scotch as an alternative to the globally known and respected, but exorbitantly expensive, Johnnie Walker Blue Label (with no age statement).  It’s our job, along with other media outlets around the internet, to make the comparison for you.  Our main evaluation concerns the whisky itself, but since the much lower-priced Chivas 18 is presumably intended to compete with the prestige of the Blue Label, we really have to think about the entire package and what it signifies.

The Incumbent: Johnnie Walker Blue Label (NAS)*

Abv: 40%

Color: Slightly coppery gold.

Legs: Nice – medium-sized beads, kind of slow; viscous.

Nose:

[DodgyDrammer]: Pungent; sour berries, dried cherries, forest pine, and there’s some peppery smoke in there, too.

[StrongLikeCask]: A little vanilla, but without any overnotes.  Nothing very strong, a little sherry.

[WhiskyParty]: Vanilla.  Citrus fruits.  Some creamy toffee notes and maybe a touch of oak influence.

Palate:

[DodgyDrammer]: Rich and evocative; a stew of fruits, spices, and sweets, with just the faintest hint of salt and pepper.

[StrongLikeCask]: Not a sharp front like the chivas (see below).  Gentle and growing.  Slightly sweet, with some pepper.

[WhiskyParty]: Some spice.  Smoke on the end.  Distinctive in that no real flavors dominate.

Body:

[DodgyDrammer]: Not too heavy, a touch oily, but medium overall.

Finish:

[DodgyDrammer]: Kind of long, with a sweet and slightly smokey fade.

[StrongLikeCask]: A good finish.  A sharp smoke, with more pepper.  Fades about half way out.

[WhiskyParty]: Decently long finish becoming more malty than anything else.

Overall:

[DodgyDrammer]: The flavour is at once big and tamed – there’s no missing it, but its not quite so well articulated for me.  Loved the nose, enjoyed the rest.  Inoffensive, and there certainly is something luxurious about it, but its hard to say what that is exactly.

[StrongLikeCask]: A decent whisky, but nothing remarkable, and nothing near worth the price asked for.  I think JW Black Label (12 year old) is a better value.

[WhiskyParty]: This is a whisky that has been “balanced” to death.  Rather than create complexity, all the flavors cancel each other out into a smooth blandness.  Rumor has it that Blue Label is created using a lot of really old single malts (eg, Ancient Royal Lochnagar).  If that is true, it’s a huge waste.

Price (750 ml): ca. $150-200 in the US.

Worth it? If you want to spend 200 bucks, and either you are giving a gift to someone with whom you are not very familiar, or your aim is to have that bottle to impress visitors, this is for you.  The prestige is a known quantity when it comes to Blue Label, and there’s just enough going on that both seasoned whisky drinkers and all-around hoighty-toighty types will appreciate it if you pour them a dram.  The packaging, which won’t matter much once you open the damn thing, is quite impressive, with a pillowy, silky box interior.

If you are trying to buildup your whisky bar, if you are giving a gift to someone who actually drinks Scotch, or if you are hosting that whisky-fueled holiday party, you can acquire any number of truly excellent single malts (or blends) for much less than $100.  And then, for $150-200 there are myriad other options that will blow you/gift recipients/party guests completely away (unlike the Blue Label).

The Challenger: Chivas Regal 18 year old*

Abv: 40%

Color: Full amber.

Legs: Okay; medium length, largish beads.

Nose:

[DodgyDrammer]: A pleasant balance of fruit and malt, heavier on the fruit; a box of clementines, some peach cobbler, candied apples, some dried fruits, a hint of something fresh like mint, some white chocolate, and some hay; a lot going on underneath the fruit, but quietly - an abundance of subtlety.

[StrongLikeCask]: Dried fruit.  Citrus.  A little cloying sweetness.

[WhiskyParty]: Red berries.  Sharp, but pleasantly sweet.

Palate:

[DD]:Rich and creamy at first, but quickly becomingdry and malty, followed by just a touch of smokeyness; cocoa powder and little chocolate candies that turn from dark chocolate toward rasberry-filled, then mocha, and finally toffee as you make your way through the box.

[SLC]: Candied cherries.  A very sharp front end.  A litte bit like licking cardboard.  But, aside from the sharp front end and the sweetness, nothing stands out too much.

[WP]: Mild spices.  Only a hint of the fruitiness evident on the nose.

Body:

[DD]: Creamy then drying, and a touch prickly; medium-bodied.

Finish:

[DD]: The toffee fades into a touch of smoke in a smooth and subtle, medium-length exit; satisfying.

[SLC]: Sticky.  Lasting, which is nice.  But nothing remarkable.

[WP]: Medium to short with the fruitiness and spice fading to a maltiness.

Overall:

[DD]: An enjoyable and classy dram; chocolate seems to be the prevailing flavour, but not in a dominating way.  Everything is in balanced quantities, although I didn’t find quite as much sherry influence as I expected on the palette, considering that Strathisla is purported to be one of the main components (along with Longmorn).  For a “premium blend,” this is a good dram at a fair price.  For a single malt fanatic, this is a nice experience, but without the overwhelming character of some whiskies.

[SLC]: The actual after-effect when the finish has died away is that I just finished sucking a sweet candy, and I’m happy that I did, but it’s still coating my mouth and I might not want that for much longer.  Like with Johnnie Walker, I actually like the 12 year expression better.

[WP]: A nicely drinkable dram, with more character than the Blue Label.  It’s the kind of dram that everyone will enjoy at a party or (expensive) wedding bar, but not necessarily something that single malt enthusiasts will seek out.

Price (750 ml): ca. $55 in the US.

Worth it? Chivas, like Johnnie Walker, has the name recognition that rings out no matter what country you live in or what winter holiday you celebrate (and those great new TV spots don’t hurt).  Certainly the Chivas Regal 18 year old will impress just about anyone on name alone, and its an affordable alternative to a No Age Statement wallet-buster like Johnnie Blue.  As great as the nose was (for some of us) on the Blue Label, the Chivas nose (for some of us) actually intrigues more.  While the mouthfeel is perhaps more enjoyable on the JW, the flavours here are generally more well-defined.  The packaging is classic Chivas: classy but not overtly opulent like the JW Blue.

I think all three of us agree that as single-malt fanatics, this doesn’t intrigue.  Its still pretty tasty, and just rich enough to compare well with the much, much more expensive Johnnie Walker Blue Label.  Great single malt 18 years such as Highland Park, Macallan, and Laphroaig are going to cost much more, although the Glenlivet and Glenfiddich 18 years will be more competitive with similarly-aged blended expressions.

Like the Blue Label, if you want to impress that business relation, a not-quite-connoisseur father-in-law, or dozens of party guests, but (unlike purchasers of the Blue Label) you aren’t made of disposable cash this winter (who is?), Chivas 18 is a sensible yet impressive purchase.

Head-to-head: It’s close, and while the Blue Label wins out in a few categories (legs, body, finish), the overall experience of the Chivas 18 and its price point makes it the winner by a slight margin.  But as stated, it really depends on what kind of purchase you are trying to make.  JW Blue Label might be the rich man’s luxury, but Chivas 18 could very well be the luxury of the everyman.

In the middle of a brief but seemingly longer-than-necessary history of the Walker family of grocers, blenders, and businessmen, Andrew Ford, the current master blender at Johnnie Walker, touched upon what might be the aspect of blended Scotch that is most relevant to single malt fanatics: ”it is only when you start blending whiskies that you know what each flavor really means.”

And with this, the soft-spoken but confident and knowledgeable Mr. Ford began a discussion of each basic element of the JW Black blend.  With one sample in front of him from each Scotch-producing region (Lowlands, Speyside, Highlands, Islands, and Islay— okay, no Cambletown), plus coffey-stilled grain whisky and first-fill sherried whisky, he poured some of the grain whisky first.

To the grain whisky Mr. Ford added an equal part water, as he continued to do with just about every sample.  Blenders, he informed us, nose and taste the whisky at 20% alcohol.  The grain whisky is very light, with just “hints of vanilla” and cereal flavor.  Most blends end up being about 50% grain whisky, although I’m sure that varies widely between blends such as Red Label, Black Label, and Gold Label.

Moving on to the various malt whisky samples, Mr. Ford reminded us that copper pot stills are a highly inefficient method of distilling alcohol— its the flavor they produce that keeps them in business.  And Black Label uses about 40 different whiskies, most of which are single malts.

One of my favorite aspects of this webcast was the real-time question and answer system; viewers were able to type questions at their keyboards that were read sometimes right away and answered by Mr. Ford.  The questions, in contrast to the ones read during Laphroaig’s live webcast from the Maker’s Mark distillery, were informed, insightful, interesting, and plentiful.  Nothing against Laphroaig drinkers (we are they), but they really limited the questions read aloud to the most basic concepts, and only a very few were read.  This was not that— they even went overtime by a quarter-hour so that Mr. Ford could answer more inqueries.

The Lowland (perhaps Glenkinchie, as one viewer pointed-out) gives JW Black a vanilla sweetness from its bourbon aging.  The Speyside (guessed by another electronic inquirer to be Cardhu, which is the core of the blend) brings fresh fruits and “grassy oats,” along with a very small bit of smoke, to the final product.

The sherry-aged malt, for which Mr. Ford dropped a few hints that it is Dufftown’s oldest distillery— sherry monster Mortlach,  adds dried fruits such as raisons plus richness to the blend.  Again, Ford gave us a few hints about the Highland that he had in front of him: a west-coast, maritime highland malt, and a bit smokey.  Well, my friends, that must be Diageo’s Oban single malt.  There seemed no doubt that the Island was Talisker, as it brings some smoke, spicy flavors, a peppery finish, and complexity to the admixture.

Finally, we came to the Islay.  This malt features “a lot of smoke… [and] burnt embers after a bonfire, slightly antiseptic.”  This malt was perhaps Lagavulin (Scotch Hobbyist’s informed guess) and perhaps Caol Ila (my guess), but Ford mentioned that as the master blender, he is “careful about how smokey Black Label should be… [it] needs to have smoke,” but its important to keep it in balance with the other elements.  If just 10% of the blend is from a heavily peated single malt, the final product will still be noticeably smokey, so says Mr. Ford.

Apparently, no cask held in the JW warehouses is specified ahead of time for any given blend— as master blender, Ford and his team mix and match the stocks they have of each distillery in order to keep the flavor of each blended expression consistent.  As for Black Label, the creaminess, the sherry flavors, the rich fruits, and the signature smoke— “its all in there.”

And to that end, for those of you to whom the blending kit was sent, or who have the ingrediants in your liquor cabinet, his suggestion was 50% grain, some sherry, some Lowland, the Speyside, and a touch of Islay OR Island (ie, Talisker).

Overall, a bit long-winded at the start (much like the name on the original label), but Andrew Ford and his masterful blend delivered in the middle and came through strong in the finish.  I rate this live event cast-strength.

Drinks conglomerate Diageo has taken a beating lately - both for closing the Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock, as well as their super high-end single cask releases, which caused an uproar in the whisky blogosphere.  But the parent company of Johnnie Walker seems like they finally hit upon a decent online promotions campaign.

First they released the Man Who Walked Around the World video, which has gone viral on YouTube. Following on that campaign, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of Johnnie Walker Black, the folks at Johnnie Walker are distributing blending kits to be used in tandem with a live training in the art of blending, webcast from New York City’s Brandy Library.  It’s an invite-only event, and so far the only people I know who have been invited are whisky bloggers.  I’m guessing that a fair amount of bartenders and mixologists got an invite too, but that’s just a hunch.

Anyway, maybe I just got bought off by Diageo, because this package is pretty bad-ass, but this seems like an awesome promotion to celebrate 100 years of Black Label.  My only wish is that they either change the event time, or make the webcast recording available after the fact.  3pm on a workday is a damned awkward time to hold a live blending event that requires so much work on the part of participants.  Myself, I’ll be at my day job and won’t be able to participate. Fortunately other bloggers here at Whisky Party have more flexible schedules, so you will see more coverage, but my own participation is contingent on being able to view the event after the fact.

On that note, wouldn’t it make sense to turn the whole event public, rather than invite-only?  Obviously they can’t send blending kits to everyone, but I’m guessing an online video lesson in blending would do pretty well even without the kit - especially when promoted by drinks and whisky bloggers.

Johnnie Walker - The Man Who Walked The World. Brilliant.

Bayonne Temple in Angkor Wat

After tasting Mekong Whisky in Southern Thailand, I flew back into Bangkok to take a short flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia.  My destination was the temples of the area - like Ankgor Wat, Bayonne and Tah Phrom (known all over Siem Reap as the Tomb Raider temple).  The best way to travel in Angkor Wat is by Tuktuk - basically a small motorcycle with a 2 person carriage welded onto the back.  There are cars around, but many more motorcycles and tuktuks.

A Cornucopia of Johnnie Walker Whisky

One of the first things I noticed on our tuktuk ride in from the airport, and I continued seeing as we traveled out to temples and around the countryside were stands set up along the side of the road with Johnnie Walker Black and Johnnie Walker Red bottles.  They almost seemed as though they were an old fashioned ice shaving stand where the Johnnie Walker bottles were filled with flavored syrup to pour on the ice - except for some reasons Cambodians only appreciated one flavor.  Now at some stands, there were other bottles - some stands had large soda bottles and others had Seagrams gin bottles - but predominantly, the bottles were black label and red label Johnnie Walker whiskey.

More Whisky in Cambodia

Eventually, I asked our guide Tea (pronounced tee-ah) what was going on with all the whiskey bottles, especially because like the rest of South Eastern Asia, most of the drinks I saw in restaurants and bars were beer - whiskey wasn’t widely available.  It’s surprising that the most prevalent place I saw whiskey all over Asia was on the streets of Angkor Wat, in refilled bottles.  So, what was in the bottles?

The liquid in the bottles, according to Tea, is actually gasoline.  It’s petrol.  And not just any gasoline, but LEADED gasoline.  There are gas stations in Cambodia, and they’re actually pretty common place, but for that unleaded gas at those stations, it apparently is expensive.  People smuggle in leaded gasoline from Thailand, and sell it on the streets for less money than the unleaded gasoline.  Cambodians just decide between screwing up their motorcycle engines with leaded gasoline, or paying more money for the unleaded variety.  The whiskey bottle is just a convenient way to measure out 1 liter of gasoline.  One would stop by a stand, pay for a bottle, and literally upend the Johnnie Walker Black into the tank.

Pigs on a Motorcycle

Cambodia was probably my favorite part of my trip to Asia.  Seeing an incredibly beautiful countryside from the back of a tuktuk, visiting absolutely stunning temples, and being able to see such a unique representation of cultural mashing through the whiskey bottle usage is something I will not forget for some time.

Spicy Snail Cart for Balancing out the Leaded Gas