Johnnie Walker Blue The Casks Edition

Review by: TOModera

What was the occasion: I had a bunch of blends, I decided to review all the blends, and I call blended malts and blended Scotches “blends”, so I did blends.

You may have drank this for a special occasion, but for Bison, it was a Tuesday.

(If you don’t get that quote, you’ve missed out on the cinematic masterpiece “Street Fighter”).

What whisky did we review? Johnnie Walker Blue The Casks Edition is a cask strength version of Johnnie Walker Blue. It was created in partnership with Singapore Airlines and you can obtain different versions of the bottle depending on what airport you purchase it from.

Huh… getting harder to not start the bias section after that loaded sentence.

What’s the distillery? Johnnie Walker is a blend that’s been around for many years, now owned by Diageo. The ubiquitous of Johnnie Walker means that it’s impossible to bring up high end whiskies without it being included. If someone wants to show off their wealth, they buy Johnnie Walker.

Fun story: Johnnie Walker himself was a teetotaller, meaning he personally abstained from alcohol, all the while selling rum, brandy, gin, and whisky, and sold whiskies made to order from customers requesting what they wanted, adding his name to the bottles years later.

What’s my bias? Story time! Not really, let’s make this simple: Johnnie Walker is a prestige brand that a lot of whisky fans grow out of as they explore more. Some think it’s due to the higher prestige that a single malt has over a blend, but surely a blend of any type can be made “to order” and mimic the exact flavours that a blender wants.

I think it’s because Johnnie Walker, when compared to dusty versions of its products or similarly priced current products, doesn’t meet the standards that its price demands. It’s on your shelf to prove you have the money to buy it, damn what’s inside.

However one of the issues with it is it’s not cask strength, and this one is. Now it was done with an Airline, meaning people potentially are drinking it on a plane, where ones taste buds don’t work as well, but let’s not judge just yet, as it’s sold at Airports, and I’m on land while reviewing it. 

That also said, people who have read what I’ve wrote before know the Airport exclusives are the equivalent of brewery exclusives: Mistakes that distilleries need to dump somewhere.

So I’m intrigued, but cautious. Let’s see where that leads me.

Distillery: Johnnie Walker.

Bottler: Distillery Bottling.

Region: Blended Scotch.

ABV: 55.8%. Cask strength.

Age: Unknown.

Cask type: Unknown.

Price: € 325 (EUR).

Color: 2.5Y 7/8.

Nose: Wood, cloves, heather, table syrup

Interesting nose. Some of this smells young. There’s strong wood and simple sugar notes. I’m not hating on it, but it’s quite simple.

However, allow me to be a devil’s advocate to myself: One thing I noticed with some high end blends by competitors is they are all nose and no substance. Perhaps, in making this version, they’ve sacrificed the nose, and thus made this for whisky geeks?

Let’s see.

Taste: Brown sugar, strawberry, wood, alcohol

Okay, that’s not bad, per say. The strong wood note isn’t helping. How did you end up with the bad aspects of young whiskies (raw alcohol) and old whiskies (woody). I like brown sugar flavours. I like the pop of strawberry flavour. The rest can go in the wood chipper.

Finish: Grass, brown sugar, alcohol, sultanas (once you add water)

Oh. You made this because the finish was alright. Interesting idea. Not really loving it either.

Conclusion: This isn’t the worst whisky I’ve had, but how did you screw up “cask strength high end blended Scotch” this much? Why even release it, ever? Do you have too much Johnnie Walker Blue? How? Western Asia is still rich with money. 

This stinks of rich whisky drinkers moving away from your product due to low strength, and you making pretty bottles and teaming up with a country with millionaires who may not know what it tastes like buying it to gather dust on a shelf as a pretty thing to brag about. I don’t know if I’d ever let this out the door if it was me. I didn’t like it as much as the standard. The grain was too young and needed to be updated for this release. There’s aspects that are quite nice, and others that are raw and not great.

Like, if an executive said “they complain about a lack of cask strength, so just release it at a higher price without watering it down”, then this is what happened. The intricate art of blending something to make it taste interesting is gone, because they are used to what it tastes like once you water it down.

Don’t buy this. 

Final Score: 64.

Scoring Legend:

  • 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
  • 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
  • 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
  • 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
  • 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
  • 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
  • 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
  • 50-59: Save it for mixing.
  • 0-49: Blech.

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