Unlike the Jane Walker package for Johnnie Walker Black Label released in 2018, this is a new whisky altogether, a blend of various malts aged at least 10 years, including Cardhu and Clynelish. The nose is floral and gently nutty, with rose water, salted almonds, green apple, nougat, and caramel chews. Light-bodied and silky in the mouth, it has bright flavors of lime, lemon, vanilla, and coconut, before edging into nutty milk chocolate and finishing with good length, and a final savory note. Best Value

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Summer 2020)

Somebody at Diageo has been taking a lot of interest in the Johnnie Walker range of late, what with the revamp of the core range and now a regular stream of special releases. This is the first of a series for Travel Retail only, but it takes the Johnnie Walker themes — vanilla, spice, and honey, with wispy peat and smoke — and adds savory spice to the earthiness. But there are some very young notes in this.

Reviewed by: Dominic Roskrow (Spring 2013)

This Glenkinchie malt and Cameronbridge grain blend highlights the vanilla character of Black Label with a nose of green apple, dry grasses, vanilla toffee, peach pit, and banana custard, with subtle hints of oak and spice. The mouthfeel is light with green apple and candied lemon, growing fruitier with boiled candies and a hint of creaminess, all held in check by the spice. Grassy finish with a hefty backdraft of spice.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2019)

Need you ask? An unmistakable classic and an exemplar of a blended Scotch whisky, famous around the world. Toffee, swirling caramel, whole almond, and mashed banana amid twisting white smoke. The palate has such poise, balance, and dexterity that it sets the standard for many less accomplished blends to aspire to. Conspicuously iconic, and the closest thing you will find to a complete whisky at this price.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2015)

Chillingly good bottle for winter, this Game of Thrones tie-in sees a rakish striding man donning body armor, gripping an ice blade, and nodding a frosty greeting through glowing blue eyes. Room temperature aromas speak of toffee, lime zest, menthol, waxy foliage, and pronounced grain notes. Straight from the freezer, there are cornflakes, beeswax, caramel, vanilla, sharp citrus, sugared apple, and a hint of nutmeg. Deliciously tasty dram for your night’s watch. Best Value

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2018)

Beeswax candles, wafers in vanilla ice cream, dried apricots, a strand of garden bonfire smoke, dried-out wedges of honeydew melon, and fruit shortcake cookies. The palate revels in barley sugar, active spices, lime, orange, and grapefruit peel, and it’s beautifully weighted with fudge and vanilla sponge cake. A mouth-clinging finish saturates the taste buds with sweet, honeyed fruits.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2018)

Sliced apple, fig rolls, hot chocolate powder, baked orange, seasoned oak, and a wisp of light smoke like a red glow from burning newspaper. It has a contented, unperturbed, insouciant character. Cinnamon toffee yields to sweeter notes, with vanilla, dried fruits, and baked peach, and then goes long on nutmeg under drifting smoke. The woodiest of Walkers, this concludes with cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice, and a catch of smoke. (Travel Retail exclusive)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2018)

A futuristic bottle design released for Ridley Scott’s replicant sequel set in 2049, hence the punchy bottling strength. Peat smoke, toffee caramels, fresh banana, and sliced red apple. Promising layers of fruit salad, grape, apple, citrus, and apricot are swept aside by an aggressive peppery attack, emerging to notes of bitter fruit, burnt rubber, and smoke. If this is a glimpse of the future, I’m stockpiling regular Black Label now. (39,000 bottles)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2018)

This lighter, fruity, spicy whisky is not for peat lovers. Bourbon, whisky, and rum casks were used for finishing, resulting in a nose of rich honey, golden syrup, peach stone, apricot, honeydew, coriander seed, ginger, and white pepper. Citrus, butter fudge, dried and tropical fruits, rumbling spices, and tangy orange create a creamy combination, from which a familiar Johnnie Walker identity suddenly snaps into place. (Travel Retail exclusive)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

Blender Aimée Gibson set out to make a sundowner scotch by incorporating whiskies matured in wine casks. The blueberry, blackcurrant, and fresh oak aromas continue on to the palate: fruit compote, raspberry, strawberry, and lingonberry with light spices. A late resurgence of dark toffee, chocolate, and cigar smoke blow into the finish. Sip away by all means, but this fruity sensation calls to be served up in long, cool drinks.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2017)

An example that older, more expensive isn’t always better, this 18 year old gem is as good as many blends twice its price. The foundation of Johnnie Walker Gold is delicate, clean, and honeyed, along with a fresh sea character (from Clynelish?) that provides a youthful zing. Notes of vanilla, shortbread, tropical fruit, freshly cut hay, marshmallow, and even a hit of peat, round out the palate. Its finish is subtly complex and nicely balanced. The blend has improved nicely over the past several years.

Reviewed by: John Hansell (Summer 2006)

Graham cracker aromas with plenty of up-front spiciness, scents of light vanilla, peanut shells, cinnamon, nutmeg, peppercorn, and toasted-grain bread. Sampled neat, there’s lemon, honeydew, golden syrup, dried banana, ground pepper, clove, hazelnut nougat, and flashes of malt. The spices get pretty feisty, so water or ice helps. With 60% rye in the blend, this has the potential to stand up with standard straight rye whiskeys.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2022)

This second release celebrates Walker’s rare fruit character using 29 handpicked casks combining regional styles, aligned to the 2010 Director’s Blend. Aromas of pear and fresh apple layered over tangy, sugar-tossed dried fruits, pineapple, deep orange oils, and dry peel. Taciturn smoke. Creamy butteriness with red apple, raspberry, and sweet orange yields to soft, chewy pear skins, honey-drizzled Turkish delights, and charred paper. An outlier of JW character but important to contemplate how this adds context to the entire collection. £550

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2015)

Designed to mix with lemonade, ice, and a wedge of orange rather than as a slow sipper, the nose has vanilla ice cream, wood shavings, crusty bread, demerara sugar, cookie dough, baking spice, and a faint hint of hot chocolate. The first sip seems thin and wheaty, with a burst of vanilla, lemon, butterscotch, ice cream cone, peppercorn, and a little nuttiness; it takes a while to reach its peak. (Houston, Texas exclusive)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2021)

I had to double check that price. My feelings are well recorded on premium whiskies bottled at 40% and if you were to ask me whether the whisky's worth the price tag, the answer's no. That doesn't make it a bad whisky, though; far from it. It has a light, dusty, and fruity nose reminiscent of raspberry sherbet, and on the palate there is trademark smoke, and pleasant toffee and treacle. Good, but in stellar company here. (Travel Retail only) Price is per liter.

Reviewed by: Dominic Roskrow (Spring 2014)

How does this long-established blend shape up on its own without a ginger or soda mixer? Fresh apple juice, a twist of lemon, dried orange peel, peppercorn, cracker bread, and a vegetal spicy note. It gets into its stride with delicious apple, gentle fudge, and good-tempered spices, with cracked black pepper and a little sourness to finish. Mild, agreeably smooth, without any bombast or hullabaloo; it just blends in.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

Described as “an exotic mix of bananas, mango, pitaya, pineapples, guava, passion fruit, and raisins, all balanced perfectly by deep charred peaty notes.” It sort of is, but this isn't a soft, silky smooth dessert whisky; it's Rod Stewart singing Air Supply's “All Out Of Love.” It's soft and gentle, but the gravel may put off the softies, and it's far too bland to appeal to fans of Maggie May. Between a rock and a hard place.

Reviewed by: Dominic Roskrow (Summer 2013)

America, Walker wants your cocktails. Emma Walker that is, the blender whose signature adorns the first of these experimental expressions. Toffee Speyside nose, digestive biscuits, cinnamon, cool mint, and a pronounced grain note from Port Dundas. Orange, lime peel, lovely caramel richness, and creamy toffee through dilution. The brand’s second consecutive rye cask finish: you noticed too? Up against its sibling, JW Select Rye Cask, there are certain similarities, but this is fruitier, less intricate, and less rich and spicy.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2016)