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Johnny Walker Double Black Limited Edition~

Joined
Oct 8, 2008
Messages
5,215
. . . is quite nice, actually.

This showed up at my local megastore, Spec's. Naturally, as a longtime fan of JWB, I just had to have one, and naturally, it being Friday, I had to crack it open right after dinner. :laugh:

The bottle itself is transparent black glass, but otherwise consistent with other JW offerings in terms of size, shape, and packaging. Very nice looking. Color in the glass is similar to JWB, although perhaps a bit redder. Nose is similar, with a bit more smoke.

Tastewise, the easiest way to describe it is as cross between JWB and Laphroiag---definitely much smokier and more robust and muscular than JWB, but just as smooth and with the characteristic flavor profile . . . just turned up quite a few notches.

Mouth feel is excellent, full-bodied and slightly oily, with a nice long finish. I'm enjoying it immensely, and will definitely be buying another bottle. I paid $35 for it and would call it a bargain at that price.

Recommended!

~Boar
 
Thanks for the review, Boar. I have been on the fence on this one as it's nearly double the cost of the regualr JWB here and I am rapidly running into storage issues. :love:
 
. . . is quite nice, actually.

This showed up at my local megastore, Spec's. Naturally, as a longtime fan of JWB, I just had to have one, and naturally, it being Friday, I had to crack it open right after dinner. :laugh:

The bottle itself is transparent black glass, but otherwise consistent with other JW offerings in terms of size, shape, and packaging. Very nice looking. Color in the glass is similar to JWB, although perhaps a bit redder. Nose is similar, with a bit more smoke.

Tastewise, the easiest way to describe it is as cross between JWB and Laphroiag---definitely much smokier and more robust and muscular than JWB, but just as smooth and with the characteristic flavor profile . . . just turned up quite a few notches.

Mouth feel is excellent, full-bodied and slightly oily, with a nice long finish. I'm enjoying it immensely, and will definitely be buying another bottle. I paid $35 for it and would call it a bargain at that price.

Recommended!

~Boar
Thanks Boar...I guess I have to crack that bottle open now and do a tasting. Sounds like you drank it neat...will you go with a splash or cube in the future?...or stay straight up?

Here in NJ I paid $45 for the bottle :rolleyes:
 
. . . is quite nice, actually.

This showed up at my local megastore, Spec's. Naturally, as a longtime fan of JWB, I just had to have one, and naturally, it being Friday, I had to crack it open right after dinner. :laugh:

The bottle itself is transparent black glass, but otherwise consistent with other JW offerings in terms of size, shape, and packaging. Very nice looking. Color in the glass is similar to JWB, although perhaps a bit redder. Nose is similar, with a bit more smoke.

Tastewise, the easiest way to describe it is as cross between JWB and Laphroiag---definitely much smokier and more robust and muscular than JWB, but just as smooth and with the characteristic flavor profile . . . just turned up quite a few notches.

Mouth feel is excellent, full-bodied and slightly oily, with a nice long finish. I'm enjoying it immensely, and will definitely be buying another bottle. I paid $35 for it and would call it a bargain at that price.

Recommended!

~Boar
Thanks Boar...I guess I have to crack that bottle open now and do a tasting. Sounds like you drank it neat...will you go with a splash or cube in the future?...or stay straight up?

Here in NJ I paid $45 for the bottle :rolleyes:

I've now got a few bottles of this stuff. Drink it neat. Much smokier than regular black, which I'm not really a fan of. Double black is good stuff at a great price.
 
I drank it both neat and on the rocks last night . . . usually, I'm a rocks guy even with the high end single malts, but I like Scotch neat, or with a few drops, or with a few rocks, or in a glass full of rocks . . . Scotchy Scotch Scotch Scotch! :laugh:

Probably going to take a second bottle down to the cigar lounge with me soon. We mostly all drink it neat there.

~Boar
 
This scotch was a little too peaty for my taste, "...cross between JWB and Laphroiag" is pretty much spot on. I did notice a bit of smoky lingering which was pleasant *(smokier than regular JWB)*.

An interesting side note, when I opened the bottle, I was confounded as to how to pour out the scotch. The little marble was confusing. I had to pour straight upside down to get it to work correctly, or it wouldn't flow properly. Stupid confounded contraption. It's cool in retrospect, but a bit confusing.

*edit for clarification
 
What exactly do you consider peaty and smoky (flavor wise)? Some people consider the "peaty" flavor to be an iodine, medicinal/hospital aroma. Smoky, is a bit more difficult to define, however I am intrigued.
 
Yeah, peat = iodine to me too, although peatiness seems to go hand in hand with smokiness to me. I've just always assumed that the peat fires were smokier than others used in distilling. If you've had good Texas barbecue, or George T. Stagg bourbon, you don't need smokiness explained to you . . . it's that dark, charred flavor in the background and on the finish. :love:

~Boar
 
My Total Wine store is holding a class this Sat and this is one they say we will be tasting. The other one that stood out was Glenmorangie Nectar D'or. I hope I can make it down there for the class. :)
 
I'd be interested in knowing what you think of the Nectar D'or----Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban is a huge favorite of mine, but I haven't branched out into their other caskings yet.

~Boar
 
Boar,
If I make it down there I will let you know what I think. I've been eyeballing a bottle for some time. I like almost everything I have ever tasted from Glenmorangie.

Jamie, 3 pm. Hope to see you there.
 
My Total Wine store is holding a class this Sat and this is one they say we will be tasting. The other one that stood out was Glenmorangie Nectar D'or. I hope I can make it down there for the class. :)

How did this end up going? Wife wanted to go to the Gem and Mineral Show, so that is where we spent the afternoon. I did have an Abraham Bowman 18 year bourbon waiting for me at the FedEx however.
 
The Double Black hgas been on sale around here at a few different stores. I picked up my last 2 just befor New Years for $30 each but they are usually about $37.

The Bowman bourbon is a Buffalo Trace product that was aged in Virginia. What mash bill is not known but it reminds me of Stagg. For $70 at the Virginia ABC it isn't a bad deal. Who did you find to ship? If you don't want to post PM me.
 
How did this end up going? Wife wanted to go to the Gem and Mineral Show, so that is where we spent the afternoon. I did have an Abraham Bowman 18 year bourbon waiting for me at the FedEx however.

The class was about what I expected. The instructor was the "Spirits Manager" (Tim) and for the most part he read off the overhead screen which was an exact copy of the handout. There was a deli tray in the back with 3 kinds of lunch meat, 3 kinds of cheese and cut up pieces of French baguette. Tim did an OK job but fell short on product knowledge outside of their private label stuff we tasted. He tried to bluff his way through the information and except for a few of us he probably accomplished doing so.

The tasting part of the class was worth the $25 price of admission for me because I was considering buying the most expensive bottle we tasted but ended up not enjoying it at all. I was also disappointed to see JW Double Black was replaced in the line up by JW Swing as I was considering a bottle of the Double Black. In addition to Swing we tasted Dewar's 12, Shieldaig 12 Blended, Monarch of the Glen 15 Blended, Glenmorangie Nectar D'or, Shieldaig 12 Single Malt, Glenfiddich 12 and Battlehill Bowmore 28. After that they brought out a Wadkins Bourbon that they seemed to love. I get the feeling they like to push their own brands as they seemed to be really enthusiastic about them compared to distillery releases. After tasting some of them this is an opinion we don't have in common.

I enjoyed the Nectar D'or and will likely buy a bottle at some point as an aperitif or after dinner dessert scotch. When asked Tim told us he thought that Glenmorangie aged this in a Sauternes cask the entire 12 years. As most of you know it's aged in a bourbon cask for most of the time and finished in a Sauternes cask. It even says so right on the bottle. I hate to sound like a complainer but I have little tolerance for people who fail to prepare. How hard is it too read 8 bottle labels? There were about 25 people in the class.
 
Total Wine has been hit or miss with me. I've noticed with the rums that slowly but surely the better bottles such as El Dorado are being replaced by the lower end bottles that I am assuming TW pushes.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the Nectar D'or
 
Finally tried it...yeah, it's peaty, but not nearly as peaty as that Caol ILA medical swab, clinical disinfectant stuff.

This could be my entry level peat scotch.
 
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