After assaulting my tongue with overly salted pork roast, ham, spaghetti, assorted cheeses and crackers, several different types of pies, my fair share of whisky, endless cookies and various other holiday treats over the three day holiday weekend, I decided to make my next review with something simple. An inexpensive Johnnie Walker blend provided by @LeeEvolved is what I landed on. This is one of the newest NAS blends in the JW catalogue. I’m not exactly sure how the wine casks were used here, if it was for finishing off the blend, or full maturation of one or more of the individual components. Either way, it’s bottled at 40% ABV, is chill filtered and has colorant added making it an amber gold with just a hint of a pinkish hue. The nose starts off quite floral. Heather honey and soft oak. Vanilla quickly takes over and dominates for a while. Fine by me, I love whiskies that are vanilla heavy. Orange rind, dried pineapple, red berries, rep plums and figs all hang out somewhere between the background and foreground. Honeysuckle, toffee and light tobacco. Candle wax and a slight smoky/peaty presence. Buttercream frosting, quite sweet really. More of the vanilla and tobacco come back around. Quite a pleasant nose, although fairly light overall. The palate is vanilla forward. Plenty of red fruits, berries and grape skins. Oaky, honey and quite malty. A little toffee, butterscotch and tobacco with a hint of raisins and figs. Just enough peat to let you know it’s there without ever really jumping out in front. More butterscotch notes come through after a while. A light bodied mouthfeel that is very creamy. Medium length finish that is very dry and full of vanilla, butterscotch and oak. I have to say I was expecting a Red Label with a wine finish, but this is head and shoulders above the Red Label. Not quite Black Label quality, but somewhere in between. The nose is very pleasant, again I am a sucker for vanilla. The palate and finish are a bit lacking, but this is a cheap JW blend after all, so it can’t be all good. A very good value for a JW at $30 locally. I would take this over the Red Label any day for any purpose. Just what I needed to get the gears of the review machine turning again. 3.5. Thanks for the sample lee. Cheers