Whisky : Johnnie Walker Double Black

Country/Region : Scotland/Blend

ABV : 40%

Cask : Ex-Bourbon/Sherry, Heavily Charred Oak

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ The In-Laws

Nose : Salt and smoke rise out of the glass with sweet notes of dark red fruits and sherry giving the aroma a complexity I was not expecting. There are bits of coal smoke and burnt rubber that strongly suggest a good measure of Talisker and Caol Ila.

Palate : Rich wood spices of clove and vanilla— I can almost taste the sweet smoke of burning wood chips. There is a cherry or baked stone fruit sweetness that surprised me and really helped balance out the smokey notes. While the flavors are rich, the mouthfeel is on the thinner side.

Finish : Crackling spice fades off rapidly. The finish is great for the first second— you expect it to stick around— but its like trying to catch a butterfly without a net, it just disappears beyond reach the second you’ve got it.

Score : 5

Mental Image : A glass of Lagavulin 16. This is one scotch you could easily sip on and think you were drinking something else.

Something Better : Ardbeg Grooves (more charred notes, better body/finish)

Something Similar : Lagavulin 16 (balanced sherry & peat combo, more intense profile)

Something Worse : Johnnie Walker Black (less complex, less rich, less smoke)

Notes : Anytime scotch comes up in conversation (and with my wife and I it’s common enough) my brother-in-law will mention that Johnnie Walker Double Black is his favorite scotch. He is typically a cocktail guy who loves to explore lots of different flavors in a night, but if he’s drinking scotch, Double Black is his sipper. I had never tried Double Black, so when we arranged a scotch tasting while he was visiting from out of town, he went out and bought a bottle to add to the lineup.

I have had Black Label many times and found it to be a solid if uninspired dram. It’s reliable, widely available, and not typically too pricey. I’ve no love for it though. So I had few expectations for Double Black— the name seemed to indicate what? That its extra Black? So extra smoke? Extra peat? I really could not picture it as a bottle worth picking up; it often retails locally $40-50, which puts it in the same range as Laphroaig 10, Lagavulin 16 and a number of other solid single malts.

Double Black did impress me. There wasn’t much aroma from the bottle, but once I got a dram in my trusty glencarin the nose grabbed my attention. It was way more complex than the regular Black, it had a depth that reminded me strongly of Lagavulin. The body was a bit thin which makes it an easy dram to drink a bit quickly. I prefer something a richer and fuller that I can nurse over the course of an evening and whose long finish never lets me forget I’m drinking scotch. JW Double Black is just not that kind of a dram, nor is it really pretending to be. It would be a great dram to pour while watching a movie or eating a steak— some activity when you don’t want a scotch that’s too complex or distracting.

Double Black definitely puts a much greater focus on the coastal distilleries of Diageo; I would hasard that there is a significant portion of Lagavulin in it, accompanied with good portions of Caol Ila, Talisker, as well as a healthy dose of Oban. I have no doubt that some of the other Diageo distilleries are in here as well. I found the biggest difference between the Black and Double Black to be a richness that reminds me strongly of Lagavulin.

Would I buy a bottle? I could see that happening. It could easily fit in to the front of my scotch cabinet as a nice inoffensive daily dram. I would probably prefer Lagavulin 16 over this, but depending on pricing, this would be a solid cost effective stand in.