Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 Year

This dram feels unique compared to others in the lineup. This bottle is a holiday spirit, a perfect mix of nuts in a bowl with some pine needles and a fresh pine cone on the side. The nose offers nuts, iodine and pine needle. A deeper pull has me smelling dried fruits and sugar cane. On the palate, it greets you with dried fruit, perhaps apricots and figs. A pleasant nut taste quickly follows, I taste cashews with beer nuts. The finish remains nutty, with iodine make a delightful appearance. The bottle I am drinking is near empty and opened for 1 year so the intensity has faded some. I find this bottle delicious and a great palate to Try at least once.

So smooth. Very peaty.

My first exposure to Johnnie Walker came before I was of drinking age with the first line of the Academy Award nominated Elliott Smith song on the soundtrack to Good Will Hunting, "Miss Misery": "I'll fake it through the day with some help from Johnnie Walker Red." As first lines go, it may have been equaled, but I'll throw down here and say it's never been surpassed. It roused my interest in having JW Red, but it would be a few years before I actually began to drink, and a few more before I moved from Irish to Scotch. My second exposure to Johnnie Walker came a bit after I tried the Red. My first serious girlfriend had left me and I was heading out on Valentine's Day to an Anti-Valentine's Day party. I decided before I went to splurge on a bottle of Black. This was 2003, and splurge is the right word because I was making $28K a year in my entry level job and Black was the height of luxury at the time (I think it might have been $30 a bottle back then). I got drunk before I got to the party, and I brought the bottle with me and got trashed at the party, fell asleep in a corner, and someone stole my wallet. A friend brought it back later with all identification and cards but minus the 20-some dollars cash. This is a story of my 20-some years, and I'm sure we all have stories like that. My third exposure to Johnnie Walker came during a Disney cruise I took with my family in 2018. Everyone had a special thing they did on the cruise. My wife got a massage. My daughter got a makeover. My son got to be a pirate for a few hours. And I got to go to a whisky tasting with my brother-in-law where they served JW Blue. They also served Glenmorangie Signet. I remember thinking the Signet was damn fine whisky. I remember thinking of the Blue: "People really spend $250 on that?" Alas, that tasting may likely be my last experience with the Blue. Now I'd heard that the Green is actually the finest in the line in terms of price meeting quality. In other words, when it comes to JW, Green is the best value for money. So I bought a bottle. I slept on it, like I sleep on so many whiskies. Just a few months ago it was $61.99 and when I nabbed it, it had gone up to $64.99, but eh, what are you gonna do? Inflation. Am I right? And I popped it open maybe four weeks back during an Eagles game-day tasting with my brother-in-law and my dad, and it turned out to be a pretty big hit. A lot of the reason is just how smooth and well-balanced this is. Now there's smooth, as in Jack Daniel's Bonded smooth, which I reviewed last night. Not necessarily a standout in terms of complexity, but, you know, smooth. And then there's smooth like Johnnie Walker Green. There's honey and a whiff a peat smoke and maybe a trace of iodine in the background with some pear in there. What you have here is a 15-year-old scotch made of Talisker and Caol Ila and Craggenmore. bottled at 86 proof, and there's a sort of urge to shout amen after sniffing it. This is certainly not the JW Red that Elliott Smith was consuming just to help him make it through the day or the JW Black that put me down and made me lose my wallet at that Anti-Valentine's Party two decades ago. This is a mature man's drink, a smoking jacket and cigar kind of drink, a Hugh Heff kind of dram, though I suspect Heff might have preferred the Blue just because, you know, being able to purchase and drink that night-after-night would be a symbol of your alpha male status. But those in the know would likely acknowledge that behind closed doors he really preferred the Green. The palate continues the pear and peat smoke explosion. Not that the peat smoke will overwhelm anyone. In fact, it seems like a good gateway peat smoke dram. Perhaps even more so than the Highland Park 12. There's less astringency here than there was in my recent bottle of HP 12, which had a sulfuric note that's simply not there on the JW Green. There's citrus as well, sort of hovering between lemon and orange, but subtle and maybe even a little rich dark chocolate flavor in there on the back end as it comes to a finish. I can see myself buying this again if the price remains where it is. It's not going to blow anyone's mind because it's not necessarily unusual or distinctive enough, but even seasoned veterans aren't going to turn their nose up at this. Simply put, this is that song that, when you put it on at a party, even the most die-hard "I never dance" people will end up hitting the dance floor with and enjoying themselves. This is the "Groove is in the Heart" of blended scotches. And that's not a bad thing. It might even be a wonderful thing. I wouldn't ask for another! Or maybe I would...

Very interesting blend. Nose is reminiscent of a johnnie walker but with speyside notes, refreshing with honey and citrus. Taste is a unique balance of the Islay and speyside flavors that’s balanced nicely. There’s definitely some smoke and peat but it’s not the defining feature. Iodine, citrus and honey are also present. It’s smooth and enjoyable, the finish isn’t the longest but I’m really enjoying it.