Johnnie Walker Blenders' Batch Red Rye Finish

Nose: Very typical "workhorse" blended scotch - a strong ethanol aroma from the youthful grain whisky plus some slight notes of interest from a small percentage of malt. Vanilla and a definite baked cereal aroma (that's the rye influence). There is a hint of oak on the nose, but it lacks depth. Palate: Dominated by a flavour rather like ginger-nut cookies and very strong sweetness. This sweet character is it's undoing, as it's not a soft honey sweetness, but rather like straight-up sugar which becomes a bit cloying after a couple of drams. In the same way that Double Black is like Black Label engineered with a liberal dose of smoke on top, this is like Red Label blinged-up with a lot of rather safe rye aromas & flavours. Finish: Very short. Not much happens at all. Having run out of mixing whisky I picked up a bottle of this at the local liquor shop today. I'd noticed it on the shelves for a while but never got around to trying it before. In a nutshell, it's a different spin on Red Label. I can see what the blenders were aiming for, but to me it lacks the simple honesty of Red Label (which I don't mind at all as a mixer) and tries to gain complexity from the sweetness. It also sacrifices the fruity and slightly smoky notes of Red Label. IMHO they would have been better off giving it some hot spice in the finish instead of so much sweetness. This is probably a good mixing whisky for introducing bourbon drinkers to scotch. The nose is scotch with hints of bourbon, and the palate is bourbon with hints of scotch. "Adequate" : 74/100 (2.25 stars)