Tasting Notes: Johnnie Walker – Black Label (Islay Origin)

Originally launched for the travel retail market back in 2019, the Johnnie Walker Origin series was released to showcase the different profiles of the many constituent malt and grain whiskies that comprise the signature Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 year old. This coincided with Diageo’s “Four Corners of Scotland” campaign which celebrated their arsenal of whiskymakers across Scotland, split into the Lowlands, Highlands, Speyside, and Islay.

The Origin series was said to be a limited edition release, albeit the number of bottles not confirmed by Diageo (and still available at various prices from a handful of retailers at the time of writing). Different cask types were used per region’s bottling to try and replicate the constituent Johnnie Walker Black Label components as they appear to the makers.

Bottle sizes varied from British standard 70cl bottles to your regular travel retail 1 litre bottles. Bottles were originally available in 2019 at £35 per bottle. Those still available now float around the £45-50 region per bottle.

Here we have the Islay entrant to series, and with Diageo owning at least two operational distilleries on the island (at the time), we are therefore looking at a blend of 12 year old (minimum) spirits from Lagavulin and Caol Ila. Quite the boon for the peat-minded followers of Johnnie Walker!

The blended malt (meaning that there is no grain whisky in there) is bottled a touch above the Johnnie Walker Black Label standard strength at 42% ABV, but is otherwise chill-filtered and stirred with the old caramel stick for colouring.

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Nose

Well it’s an Islay nose for sure. Classic bonfire smoke and seaside briny notes. Like a log burner or coal fire. Black char and smoke. Other than that it’s a little sweet and a little spicy behind the smoke.

Taste

A soft toffee sweet arrival. The smoke follows afterwards although nowhere near the levels that the nose was indicating. There’s also very grist-like and sweet barley sugar flavour behind it all. Alcohol brings a little heat and the oak and alcohol rise to bring a touch of ginger and cinnamon spices.

Finish

The casks and booze really bring a fast and sharp white pepper heat to the finish and the smoke returns to the experience to give that final Islay nod.

Verdict

It does what it says on the tin/carton. It has that distinctly Johnnie Walker experience of being approachably soft – but I think it’s actually too thin. Far less cloying and bodily than the nose would suggest. And that’s despite it being a few points over the usual JW 40% ABV.

Its main feature and appeal to me is that this is essentially a 12yo blend of Caol Ila and Lagavulin. But… it’s also a Johnnie Walker meaning that they couldn’t go full Islay with it either. Its got the hallmarks there – especially on the nose – but it has the brakes held on when it comes to taste and finish, from a peaty perspective.

The toffee and malt influences seem to cancel each other out in the body but it’s their peated elements that win here and obviously play into the Islay peathead sentiment.

Having tried it, I wouldn’t bother adding water. The toffee-ness becomes more present but the smoke subsides and it all seems far too diluted and soft.

I like the concept of them breaking up the flavours of the signature JW profile into the 4 regions or ‘corners’ here of vanilla (Lowlands), rich fruit (Highlands), orchard fruit (Speyside), and smoke (Islay). Given the number of distilleries involved in the production it’s great to taste the combo of those regions to create the respective elements of the overall JW make up.

That said, I’m not so sure that I’d especially want to go out of my way to try the others. Maybe the Highlands rich fruit. But not for their currently available prices. That said, I was able to pick this one up at a bargain as it was in the Black Friday sales. At £25 it is a great price. At £50 or so now, then not so much.

That said, it is still far more affordable and approachable than the individual four corners single malts they released in 2020. The Four Corners marketing also seems to be a selective choice to ignore the Campbeltown region (which they do not currently have a distillery in) and the more questionably categorised Islands region – usually considered part of the Highlands, but seems to be building up an identity of its own – albeit that Talisker would very much fly their flag for that region.

I often wonder if travel retail releases/series are experiments form the distilleries/brands behind them. This seems like it would work as an ongoing thing. Maybe they could keep it going at the Johnnie Walker Experience in Edinburgh? That said, I’m not sure that a regular JW fan would like it actually. The smoke and the sharp white pepper finish are certainly more bold than in a regular JW. The peatheads may rejoice in that experience, anyway.

As an opportunity to essentially taste what is a blend of Caol Ila and Lagavulin – Diageo’s two titans of the Islay east coast – then it seemed bit of a steal. With 12 year old single malt expressions from each costing more than double that, it was a no brainer.

On that note, it may just be the way that they describe Johnnie Walker on their packaging but the language on the box says that it “includes” Caol Ila and Lagavulin, but surely those are just it? Its also described as a blended malt, meaning that there is no grain whisky in there, so its just got to be those two, right? Maybe there is some other malt in there for balance. Whatever the case, those are two 12 year old single malt champions in the mix. It also makes for a really good source for smoky cocktails.

M

Dram Disclosure: This is my own bottle, purchased fair and square. At that price, I couldn’t miss out. All notes are intended as an honest, fair, and independent review of the whisky, and not as a promotion. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely.