White Walker by Johnnie Walker

Surprisingly good! Hints of vanilla and oak. Definitely a sweeter whiskey. Best served chilled or on the rocks.

Nose: Grain whisky with some light fruit and berry notes and a little bit of vanilla toffee, but it’s all rather thin and spirity. It reminds me of the nose on Red Label but with more sweetness. Palate: Disarmingly sweet, soft and easy right through the tasting. Notes of toffee, brown sugar, vanilla, and some stewed berries. There is no real arrival, development or finish to speak of – it just appears and then hangs about for a while without changing. Finish: Medium/short. I promised myself that I'd ignore everything to do with Diageo’s GoT tie-in whiskies, however at the liquor store today they were giving away tastings of this stuff so … what the hell. It is, obviously, a mass-market sipping blend specifically engineered to appeal to those who normally don't drink whisky neat, or maybe at all. At room temperature it is *very* sweet, which is of course intentional so that when it is served from the freezer (as per the marketing advice) it will still have flavour. I imagine it would also gain some density of texture that way. Diageo say it contains Cardhu and Clynelish, but I couldn’t detect any trace of Clynelish. It seemed to be mostly Cardhu and grain whisky. It’s not unpleasant, but rather banal and little more than a novelty. I'm amazed it isn't being packaged together with a bobble-head white walker for Christmas. If you like your whisky to have depth, breadth and an interesting character to explore then leave this on the shelf and look elsewhere. The core-range Johnnie Walker Red Label is way better than this. “Inferior” : 65/100 (1.5 stars)