Tastes

N: Peach and honey - I also have other JW blends open at the moment and the peach is stronger here than most. And I like it. Salty, maritime scent after that. Then an onslaught of red fruit that lands at something like a dried raspberry idea. Toffee, sweet bread, caramel - all tinged by the red fruit and maritime element. P: Sweet, earthy, bit of smoke (which, interestingly, I have never gotten off the nose, and this bottle is about empty). Spicy, minty, yeasty - kinda like a good dark rye bread. Malt backbone with toffee and caramel. Bit of coffee in it: beans, roast, and bitterness. Finish is fairly mild: cinnamon with some of the mint and coffee bitterness hanging on for a bit, maybe some wood tannins too. Sticks around for quite awhile, but always stays polite and quiet. Gentle finish for the price range, but it seems right for the dram. A fine, well-executed blend that offers no compelling reason to have another bottle of. Maybe that's why JW killed it off. If you find it at a good price, enjoy one while you still can. Or don't. Really, it's okay.

N: Blackberry jam. Other berries with cream. There's a pungent, floral herb in it - it's vegetal, almost like a green onion, but much softer and sweeter. I feel like I shouldn't like it here, but I do. Toasted nuts with orange citrus - almost an orange marzipan. Hearty oat bread. At times, two other scents float over all of this: 1) pot still spices and 2) an amorphous fruity scent that's like what happens when you open the door to a smoothie bar, just more subtle and far less sweet. P: Sweet caramel. Nutty orange again, but less citrus acid now - more like orange candy. Hint of chocolate comes with the blackberries. Vanilla extract with almond. Tiniest bit of charred red fruit, just enough to prove the wood, I suppose. Mouthfeel is thick, somewhere between creamy and oily. Still feels more in the medium body range than other single pot still whiskeys. Finish adds more chocolate early. That's a feint. Late in the glass you notice the pot still spice building deep at the back of the throat, then suddenly your tongue is on fire every time it moves. Doesn't end there: some time after that, when you've probably finished the glass (but not yet poured another), you notice that the sides of your tongue are numb: the tannins have arrived, and brought a bitter end to the party, literally. A decade plus of serious IPA drinking puts me in a place where I kinda like a little bitterness in a whiskey, so it's a fun ride. YMMV. I dig this - it's so many different things at the same time, and it's tasty - but I really wanted to LOVE this: 1) it's a single pot still whiskey (which I love), 2) it isn't made by Irish Distillers (which make fine juice, but having options matters and I like more craft options), and 3) this comes from a part of Ireland where no one has mass produced whiskey in over a 100 years (geographic diversity leads to distinct and interesting flavor profiles - look at Scotland, or just food). Reality is this is probably a half step behind the Powers single pot stills, Red Breast, the Spot whiskeys - all Irish Distiller products. Perspective: this is the first whiskey released from the Shed Distillery (as far as I know), which has only been in operation since 2014. They seem well-funded and hell-bent on making a name for whiskey in northwestern Ireland. A half step behind the big boys on your first try is pretty damn good. Lets see what else they release and how they progress over the next, say, ten years. Could be interesting... I hope it is.

N: Cherries and smoke. Cherry smoke. Smoked cherries? Green apple, also smoked. Despite the smoke references, it's really more like a pervasive presence than anything dominant - like white noise against the rest of the flavors. Floral. Ethanol starts medicinal, but dances on and maybe slightly over the line into just plain booze. Maybe just the faintest hint of sea spray in it. Maybe not. P: Sweet and round feeling with fruit coming first, then a quick hit of spice. Fruit is red - more cherry, but also a wider and more generic range. Spice is very cinnamon, bordering on cinnamon candy. Sneaking in just between the fruit and the spice is a nice malty, bready, chocolaty midsection. It happens so fast that it's hard to characterize distinct flavors, but feels nice and adds good balance and transition between that first taste and the finish. Finish is mostly that cinnamon spice, but it also offers a bit of wood with some char, peat smoke on the exhale, and little lingering chocolate from the mid-palate. "Black Label, rocks, double" - I've ordered that so many times, in so many bars. I'm not even sure I could tell you what I liked about it. Probably not much given I was getting about 2 parts ice for 1 part whisky. I guess we all start somewhere. Reapproaching now, this is perfectly serviceable. I even like it. The smoke is there, even if it is just sort of a white noise that everything else plays in front of. And there's something about it that feels polished, clean, even a bit elegant in a way that something like a Dewar's blend or a Famous Grouse just doesn't have (Chivas maybe... just haven't had enough to know). As for comparisons, I think this is hands down better than the Dewar's 12 year and probably only a short step down from the Dewar's 15. And it's priced less than either of them - half the cost of the 15, in fact. (It's easy to forget that this carries a 12 year age statement - it's saying something to say this is relatively competitive with a 15 year.) But it's also nowhere near as interesting as say a Compass Box Glasgow Blend (but, to be fair, few drams are) or the Glen Scotia Double Cask (single malt, so also probably not quite fair). Both of those cost about twice as much as this, but I'd probably pay it most days. I can't really come up with much in my blended scotch experience that, at $20 a bottle, can really compete with this. (There's some Irish whiskey that's damn close on price and more interesting, and definitely some BiB Bourbon that would be easy to grab over this, but those are different worlds in many ways.) Comparisons like that are probably beside the point though. Like I said about Jameson, this is ubiquitous for a reason - it's actually pretty good and it has a unique hook. JW Black smoke is likely all the peat smoke many whisk(e)y drinkers get - if all you know is Johnnie Walker, Jameson, and Jack Daniels (and maybe some Fireball) - which is a lot of people - then this is all the smoke you know. So that's sort of its hook. Well, anyway, I'm glad to be a little pleasantly surprised by a big name yet again.

N: Red fruit (cherry) early and then the smoke hits. It's that Johnnie Walker peat smoke smell that, to me anyway, is not exactly the same as anybody else's. There's a sort of casual elegance to it that also often feels like a tossed off afterthought. It's like trying exceptionally hard to look like you're not trying at all. And pulling it off! It's in the Black Label too. More so here, I suppose, but it's not overwhelming as one might expect from the box and bottle marketing. Moving on, after the smoke there's a definite salty ocean smell that I generally think of as "maritime." Some other fruits dance in, all drenched in that maritime element, like a peach or pear or apple you just rinsed off in a tide pool. Especially the apple - it's green and a bit sour. Deeper in you find tiny bits of wood and leather, which are suddenly and unfortunately lost in ethanol. The booziness snuck up on me and numbed me, evidence that it is not overpowering. It was a nice ride while lasted. P: Feels quite a bit simpler on the tongue. Traditional in leading with caramel and vanilla. These turn toward a powdery milk chocolate after a beat and you find yourself wanting to go back to the nose for more smoke - there's none on the palate that I can sense. There is a nice woodsy, spicy burn in the finish, which maybe has a hint of char in it, but no peat smoke. Spice is a little more than cinnamon, a little less than capsaicin. It hangs for a bit, but is no champion. The dram has a nice, thick, oily and coating feeling on the tongue. The promise of the nose does not deliver on the palate here. The nose seems to keep going deeper, far more than I expected. Every time I took a deep breath of it and thought 'what's new,' there was something new (until I went numb, whatevs). But every time you go back for a sip, it's just more caramel and vanilla. It's a finely done and executed caramel and vanilla, but it's also a disappointment in contrast to the nose. The nose is very nice and offers great value, but the palate is rather pedestrian and forgettable. Unlikely I do this one again.

N: Butterscotch, toffee, caramel, and a medicinal sort of ethanol. P: Sweet and spicy. Butterscotch again with bread pudding made with a hearty dark bread. Rye and anise spice starts as a general flavor, then continues into the finish. Finish is also tannic and woodsy, slightly bitter, a bit stinging (ethanol), but generally pleasant. Nothing off in it. Nothing spectacular either. Easy drinking, great value.

N: Smoke, peat, peat smoke, sea spray. Smoked meat. Salted fruits, if that's a thing. Fruit is mostly red, but there are hints of citrus and maybe banana dropping in and out. Leather and earth combine in a way that reminds of dry tobacco. There might be an almond nuttiness in it too - not sure about that one. P: It's an ambush! Feels like everything hits almost all at once. Salty and sweet just barely lead the charge. The salt is a sea spray type salt with a subtle meaty, earthy, smoky undertone. It's combined with the sweet, which is very red fruity and ranges from something almost like fresh strawberries to dried cranberries. The effect is, again, salted fruits. I don't hate it though. Before you've figured out the salted fruit opening, you're hit mid-palate with a rich caramel, chocolate, hazelnut attack. The salt carries through, so all those things are of the salted variety. There's a slight baked goods feel to it too. The finish starts about the same time as the mid-palate taste and merges into the baked goods adding heat and cinnamon. The salt and smoke fade some, but the chocolate lingers deep into the finish, so you get a sort of chocolate swirled cinnamon roll with just the right amount of ethanol heat. This is my 2nd review of this bottle. In between the two, I had COVID and lost my sense of smell for a while (taste was not lost, but reduced to simple things like salty, sweet, bitter, etc.). I bought this and another redo bottle thinking I'll re-review without reading my previous review first and see if my senses of smell and taste are back in full force and can be trusted again. After spending some time with this fantastic dram, I think I know without even comparing the reviews. What I recall from my first review of this bottle was that I was a bit overwhelmed by the smoke (high percentage of Lagavulin, if I recall correctly - something very smoky anyway). I also remember my more recent review of the Artist's Blend from the same Great King Street series. In that review, I said something along the lines of the Artist's Blend having a more complicated nose than palate, and that that was okay at times. This Glasgow Blend proves the opposite can also be true. I still find the nose to be dominated by the smoke and a bit one-note in that way, even if I did find something more this time. The palate here, however, is complex, phenomenal, and delicious in a way that more than makes up for a softer nose. My only complaint, if it even counts as a complaint, is that ambush feeling of the palate. A little slower presentation of the flavors would likely allow even more to come out and elevate this dram. But I can't really make that complaint in earnest for a $40 bottle that contains juice from some fantastic houses. This is a great whisky and a great value.

N: Caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, and ethanol, but not an obnoxious amount. Maybe some maple. P: Same as above: caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, and then heat - part ethanol, part cinnamon spice. Finish is long and spicy - mostly cinnamon, but it elevates to a spicier, chili pepper-like spice over time. It's simple, but it's quite nice. Entry level Knob Creek is one of my favs, a go to generally and I often ask for it when I order an Old Fashioned - it elevates the drink far above well whiskey without crazy elevated cost, and most places have it. For me, that caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, ethanol mix here is like the best basic version of caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, and booze in a bourbon I can think of without complication or cost. In short, this is *the* entry level bourbon, in my mind. This is one I return to often and I don't see that changing.

N: It's Jameson - caramel, vanilla, just enough fruit so you know it's Irish - but added to that are a few new wrinkles: chocolate, coffee, cola (maybe) and some dark fruit. Actually, quite a nice mingling of flavors. P: Chocolate hits hard early - soft, sweet milk chocolate first that shifts to a more bitter dark chocolate. This is a major change from mainline Jameson. The expected caramel and vanilla cream flavors saunter in and out of the chocolate bath at times. There's a bit of coffee in it too, but the fruit is more subdued than might be expected. Finish is, like Jameson, bitter first then moving to cinnamon spice. There's a third step in this that doesn't happen in the original: the cinnamon spice is joined by a lingering sweetness and chocolate. The bitter here comes across more like hops (or even coffee) than the tannins of the original. The cinnamon is much more subdued here and tends to fade out when the sweet chocolate hits. It basically turns into what I might expect if I ordered a Mexican hot chocolate in an Irish bar (Why? IDK, but I"m sure someone has done it). This is a solid line extension. It's a good complication of the original that feels like it adds something interesting rather than just presenting a different approach to Jameson. As a stout lover, this has been a go-to for me for years now. That said, approaching it for the first time since undertaking my pandemic inspired self-guided whiskey education (and having exponentially increased my exposure to different whiskeys in the process), it feels too sweet and overly chocolatey now. It's just too easy. The Teeling Small Batch can be found for about $5 more (maybe even less than that at times) and it offers substantially more depth and complexity - so much so that this starts to feel like a gimmicky flavored whiskey in comparison. I feel like I'll still return to this bottle from time to time, but it'll be more of a "good memories" than a "good whiskey" type of return.

N: Standard straight bourbon notes of caramel and vanilla, but they feel subtler than most at this price range, and they're complicated by a nice, soft fruitiness that weaves in and out of the nose. It's sometimes a light orchard (pear), sometimes a similar but colder feeling stone fruit (peach). Gentler than I expected, and I appreciate that. P: All sweet: caramel drizzled coffee cake with rich vanilla icing. The fruit is there too, but weaker and less distinguishable - more like an influence than a fully developed flavor note. Finish is gentle, but maybe just long enough for the character of this whiskey (and the price point): cinnamon spice (which is a nice complement to the sweet flavors) and just a bit of oak tannin after a few sips. This was a total surprise to me. Well it is a bit overly sweet (approaches cloying at times), this was softer and much more enjoyable than I was expecting. Granted, I had very low expectations for the bottle, but still it was a bit more than just a pleasant surprise. Given the price point, I could see myself keeping a bottle of this around for those nights you want a bourbon, but don't want to think too hard about it and also don't want to be slapped in the face by it. Not sure how many nights like that I have, but I think we all have friends who have lots of nights like that - I could share this with them with a straight face feeling like it's quality, but also easy.

N: Toffee, caramel, vanilla, and wood. Some dark cherry mixes in if you swirl and try for it, but it feels real (not forced). P: Rich and hearty. Wood forward with lots of oak and char. Then the toffee and caramel. Finish is oak tannin and cinnamon spice with just a touch of black licorice. Bold and solid, but the wood crushes the subtler and, I think, desirable orchard fruit flavors in the standard 81 proof version, which makes that a slightly better value for me. This also isn't quite as interesting as something like the Evan Williams White Label Bottle in Bond. Decent in a pinch though.