What Do You think of Gold Label?

by **ScotchPalate** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 7:05 pm

Is Johnnie Walker Gold Label worth the $75 / about 40 Pounds / about 60 Euros. Please include tasting notes

by **Badmonkey** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:02 am

I enjoyed it immensely about 2 months ago with a few pieces of dark chocolate. I think it is a fine duty free purchase.

by **ScotchPalate** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:40 am

Does it have a dark chocolate taste/finish?

by **Admiral** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:37 am

Gold Label is nicely honeyed, sweet, and quite syruppy. It's probably my favourite of the JW range.

Cheers,
AD

by **BruceCrichton** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 6:27 pm

I go along with Admiral.

JW Gold is one of the sweetest whiskies ever and is very honeyed and syrupy. The Cardhu distillery manager recommends that you have it slightly chilled. :shock:

or should that be

by **Frodo** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 7:54 pm

Yup. Fairly honeyed dram. Nice though. Would I buy one? Perhaps if I had the $$ although I don't consider it a bargain at 2xJWB (LCBO pricing).

by **Admiral** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:34 pm

Ah, yes, Frodo, but what else does 2xJWB buy you that would tickle your tastebuds?

In my currency, 2xJWB = $82, which is more than most single malts these days. (e.g. Lagavulin 16 retails for $99, Aberlour a'bunadh retails for $90, etc, etc).

JW Gold is an 18yo, and looking purely at age statements (ignoring blend versus malt), $82 is pretty sensational value for an 18yo. (Macallan 18 now retails for the ridiculous price of $175; Highland Park 18 retails for $155).

Cheers,
AD

by **bond** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 7:27 am

I would rate Gold Label as the best blended whisky going. Is it worth the price? Probably not because one can pick up far better whiskies at that price. I would plump for complexity over smoothness any day and like all other blends, Gold Label lacks much complexity.

However, while Clynelish is supposed to be the backbone of the Gold Label, I am hard pressed to detect any of the coastal notes that one would associate with Clynelish in the blend. Honeyed is how I would describe the mouthfeel too. Any idea why?

by **Ize** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 11:09 am

BruceCrichton wrote:The Cardhu distillery manager recommends that you have it slightly chilled.

The Cardhu distillery manager has a point, but I would go further with Gold Label, it is excellent on the rocks whisky. I can hardly imagine myself using it any other way ... :twisted:

by **GreyArea** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 10:03 am

Just to confirm that it's a very good whisky - as has been mentioned it's honeyed, sweet and very smooth. However, you can get single malts that are at least as good and cost half as much. A standard Laddy 10 springs to mind.

Jim

by **Frodo** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 3:30 pm

Admiral wrote:Ah, yes, Frodo, but what else does 2xJWB buy you that would tickle your tastebuds?

In my currency, 2xJWB = $82, which is more than most single malts these days. (e.g. Lagavulin 16 retails for $99, Aberlour a'bunadh retails for $90, etc, etc).

JW Gold is an 18yo, and looking purely at age statements (ignoring blend versus malt), $82 is pretty sensational value for an 18yo. (Macallan 18 now retails for the ridiculous price of $175; Highland Park 18 retails for $155).

Cheers,
AD

Point taken. I feel there is not much out there with a flavour profile similar to JW Gold. I don't think it's a bad value, just that I prefer to spend my money elsewhere...

by **ScotchPalate** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:03 pm

I can understand. There are a lot of other things I can spend $75 (like $82 after tax) on.

by **Thomas H.** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 5:57 pm

Certainly not bad, quite a nice blend, but very overpriced IMO. There are some very, very good single malts for half the price.

by **Frodo** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:44 am

Admiral wrote:Ah, yes, Frodo, but what else does 2xJWB buy you that would tickle your tastebuds?

Cheers,
AD

Talisker 10 and Dalwinnie 15 at 1.5 JWB. Perhaps Ardbeg 10 @ 1.9 JWB, Dun Bheagan 8yr Islay or Glenmorangie @ 1 JWB, Jameson 12 or Redbreast 12 @ 0.9 JWB.

I have low standards...

by **Les Paul** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 5:01 pm

JW Gold is a delicious whisky; my favorite of all the JW Labels. For the price, I would much rather have the Lagavulin 16.

by **MGillespie** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:27 am

I'd agree...JW Gold is also my favorite of all the JW blends...it's the most balanced one, with just a touch of honey...

Mark

by **Deactivated Member** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:47 pm

A JW employee told me that I should keep the bottle in the fridge and drink it chilled. Haven't had the courage to try this.

by **Admiral** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:39 pm

I challenge you to try the following:

Take your JW Gold and put it in the fridge (or freezer, as is often recommended by Diageo folk), and then also put a bottle of JW Red right next to it.

Wait until both drinks are chilled or "frozen", then get a friend to pour them into unmarked glasses so that you don't know which is which.

Then taste them, one at a time, and try and identify which is the Gold and which is the red.

In my experience 75% of people, when drinking scotch at these temperatures, either cannot discern any difference, or they guess incorrectly.

So tell me.....why the hell would you pay for JW Gold at seven times the price of JW Red, only to put it in the fridge and effectively end up with something that tastes no different to JW Red? :shock:

Cheers,
AD

by **Deactivated Member** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 11:01 pm

Yeah...always find suspect serving suggestions designed to make sure you can't taste the product. Why do you think Budweiser and the like are always served ice cold? My cellar-temperature pint of Landlord still tastes great after sitting an hour on the table while I dram.