Johnnie Walker Double Black

Yet another stop along my way of tasting inexpensive blends. I really like Monkey Shoulder for cocktails, but wondered if there was something else that might be better. So I got together a list of relatively inexpensive scotch - all blends - to taste my way through. For the record, this experiment bounds the upper end at the price of the MS. So far I've had Dewar's White Label (I'm a long time drinker), Johnnie Walker Red (just say "no"), Johnnie Walker Black (made me stop drinking Dewar's White Label), and Famous Grouse (same league as JW Red, so same answer). I've had others (J&B, Teachers, Haig & Haig, and probably a dozen more), but not in anything like a recent period of time where I might feel comfortable providing a comparison. Since I like bolder flavors and a bit of smoke, this JW might be a good fit for me. Let's see... Fresh bottle, first pour into a glencairn neat. Allowed to sit for about 5 minutes to rest. Kind of an orange-brass pour. Some sheeting on a swirl, minor slow tears. The nose is bactine anseptic, alcohol, iodine, some peat, a bit of vanilla, a trace of plums. It smells like a slightly amped up JWBL. This is nicely tame, slightly peaty and smoky, sweet with honey and vanilla on first taste. Nothing too complex. But if I wanted to know what the essence of a smoky, peaty scotch is like without heading to single malts, this is a great outline. There's a bit of length to the finish. There's a tinge of sour or bitter on the back end (could be me at this moment) but otherwise this is a pretty predictable whisky. If you don't like this, you likely don't like any Islay scotch. This is solid. This is a good candidate for a Rob Roy (I want a bigger trace of smoke than MS provides in that cocktail) or a Blood & Sand, I think. I like it. My ratings put a good, mass market nothing special whisky at 2.5 - right at the peak of the bell curve. Any quality offering is most likely to place between 2.0 and 3.0. Above 3.0 we get into what I consider a better class of liquor. Above 4.0 lies the range of true all-stars. This is a dram that doesn't make it that far, but I think it's fair to say its a little above average. I like it, but I don't like it too much more than I like the regular JWB. Bottom line, I don't like this over regular Black enough to pay a premium. This is a push, taste is maybe a *little* more rich, definitely a bit more sweet, but the price is *noticeably* higher by 20%. I won't buy another, but I'm satisfied with the bottle I got. If given the option this might be a good choice to sample at your local drinkery. YMMV.

pretty good blended

Smoky. Pretty good standard dark whiskey. I'm enjoying it!