Johnnie Walker’s latest is a Blue Label with umami

There are several whiskies that can rightfully stake a claim to being far more engaging than the Johnnie Walker Blue Label. I know we are comparing apples and oranges here, but the Macallan 18 YO comes instantly to mind. Many whisky geeks will also tell you that certain whiskies in the JW range are way better value for money than the Blue. But none of these whiskies is a status whisky like the Johnnie Walker Blue Label is.
For over 30 years, Johnnie Blue has been the bottle that’s been opened to mark milestones. The whisky, which uses casks from about 40 distilleries such as Cardhu, Benrinnes, Mortlach, Caol Ila and Linkwood, was reportedly the only dram served on the British Airways Concorde; and its special editions, such as the recently launched Elusive Umami, are much sought after by die-hard fans. The Elusive Umami, which will only be retailed in Mumbai ( ₹44,500) and Gurgaon ( ₹28,000), is an attempt at capturing the luxurious savouriness of the fabled fifth taste, and part of a worldwide trend towards bolder flavours in spirits.
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Bottled at 43% ABV, the whisky was co-created by Johnnie Walker master blender Emma Walker and Michelin-starred Japanese chef Kei Kobayashi. While the standard Blue Label is produced from just one in 10,000 casks, multinational alcobev giant Diageo, which owns Johnnie Walker, says that for the Elusive Umami, the standards were even higher. Only one in 25,000 casks made the cut.
Despite the fact that there are also pricier whiskies in the JW stable, elusivity and exclusivity have always been the Blue Label’s jam, and it is as much a marketing triumph as it is an exceptionally smooth whisky.
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The Blue Label was conceived in the early 1990s to target a specific demographic – rich American businessmen and bankers – who were spending enormous amounts of money on Californian wine. On its launch in the US, Johnnie Walker’s first luxury blended scotch whisky was priced at $150, which was significantly higher than any other spirit in the market at the time. Since then, its consistent association with “epic achievements” and class have turned it into the equivalent of the Mercedes limousine or the Dom Perignon of whiskies for a certain set of customers.
The 2020s, though, are nothing like the 1990s. This is quite clearly the age of single malts. Plus, there’s fancy bourbon, rye whiskey, and anejo tequila that are vying for the short attention spans of the young and the rich. And so, Diageo regularly polishes the aura of its most coveted blended whisky with even rarer launches such as the Ghost & Rare series, which uses whisky stocks from defunct or ‘ghost’ distilleries, or hunts for fleeting flavours of umami in its inventory of over 10 million casks.
Emma Walker, who has a doctorate in Chemistry, says that she and Kobayashi handpicked whiskies from Diageo’s stable like they were ingredients – from salty, smoky notes to savoury, meaty flavours. “Sometimes you’re lucky and the first combination works as expected. But even if this is the case, you’ll continue to make different iterations until you arrive at the right prototype.” The casks were selected from inland and coastal distilleries, says Walker, and the goal was to create a whisky that captured a unique flavour, and one that can be paired with food.
That food needn’t always mean a meal at an omakase restaurant. It could also be, as noted journalist and epicure Vir Sanghvi, who introduced the whisky to journalists and the criminally wealthy at an event in Mumbai earlier this month, pointed out, butter chicken (which is entirely umami, because of the concentrated tomato); Indian Chinese, in which soy sauce plays a stellar role, or pizza.
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Our tasting session began with a pour of the regular Blue Label, which, as those familiar with the whisky would know, is all silky elegance, like a love ballad on your palate. And then came the Elusive Umami accompanied by a spoonful of caviar. There is a shadow of savouriness on the nose, accompanied by a refreshingly pleasant sweetness. On the palate, this writer initially encountered rumours of mandarins and berries before being presented, for the briefest of moments, with an unmistakable savouriness. Notes of mushrooms, maybe, or was it smoked meat? I’m still not sure, but these notes were amplified by the caviar that was at hand, and it was a sensation that one kept returning to over and over again.
India has been allotted about 2,000 bottles of the Elusive Umami just in time for this festive season, when these can be savoured in Mumbai’s penthouses and Delhi’s bungalows with generous helpings of butter chicken and pizza.