A Dusty Red Label From Back When Red Label was Awesome

Johnnie Walker Red Label, today, is a bottom of the line Diageo blend that is made for mixing into cocktails.  I reviewed it last year and didn't like it straight at all.  But Red Label exists in deep time - born of a marketing name change (from "Special Old Highland") back in 1909 - the year the iconic striding man logo was developed.  This is also the year the Lincoln penny replaced the Indian head cent design.  I have managed to get my hands on a number of samples of Johnnie Walker Red Label which occupy a range of periods from the 1930s through today.  But this isn't that post.  I started the tasting dead in the middle with a bottle that dates from the late 1960s to the late 1970s (I'm not certain which).  It surprised and delighted me - shocked me really.  Thus the stand-alone review.

Dating a dusty Johnny Walker Red.  

In gross terms, the first pass at dating  anything not obviously antique involves looking for these features:

1) Is there a tax strip?  They were discontinued in 1985.  

2) Is the volume listed in metric (liters) (1980 or later) or avoirdupois (pints and quarts)(means prior to 1980)

3) Is there a UPC Code?  They came into use, generally, in the late 1970s.

There are more - particularly for a slightly more recent era.  A great place to start is Steve Urey's post 

Dusty Thursday: Dating your Dusty

So this bottle has a tax strip, uses avoirdupois (4/5th of a pint), and has no UPC code - so were' talking about a bottle that's from the late 1970s or earlier.  You'd think a big clue would be the strength.  Current Johnnie Walker Red is 40% abv. (80 proof)  This is listed as 86.8 proof.  Another potentially likely sounding clue is the importer: the front label clearly states "Imported by Somerset Importers LTD., New York, N.Y." This shows it's a US import and thus I know that 86.6 proof is US proof.  However, a review of the advertising shows this on a multitude of labels with essentially identical style, importer, and 86.8 proof from 1967 through 1988.  Ads from 1966 and earlier show the importer as "Canada Dry Corporation" not Somerset Importers LTD.  Even earlier ads have different label details and start having cork closure.  By 1992 we have the redesigned label and icon with the "phantom" walking man and a reduced proof of 40%.  That's right, the proof wasn't reduced from 86.8 (43.4%) to 40% until 1992.  

1966 ad.  The same except Canada Dry Corporation is the importer.

1972 Holiday ad.

So where does this leave us with dating this bottle?  It's somewhere after 1966 at the earliest and the late 70s at the latest (because of the lack of a UPC code) - and it's tough to be precise.  So, bottom line, this is a late 1960s through late 1970s bottle of Red Label.  I'm struck by the 1972 and 1974 holiday ads - which show the identical bottle (but 4/5 quart bottle).  I have a feeling, aided by the provenance, that this is from the late 1960s to early 1970s - but it's a hunch. 

1974 Holiday ad.

1979 "Hotline" ad - check out the awesome phone.

But, really, so what?  Red Label is Red Label, right?  Turns out that isn't so:

Johnnie Walker Red Label (late 1960s - late 1970s dusty) 86.8 proof.

Color: full gold

Nose:  A shocking revelation:  it's good.  Really quite good.  Highland honeycomb, floral heather, some fruity esters, and a distant complicating tang of coastal air, and a rich foundation of gentle smoky background peat.  It's a rich and lovely Scotch nose - quite vivid.  This has nothing in common with the current Red Label's nose.  In fact it cleanly blows away most of the current Johnny Walker line and most regular blends.

Palate:  Heather honey, with the meadow florals showing through in the opening.  There is a grain note in the opening too - but it's good grain whisky flavor, with notes of coconut and a bit of bubblegum.  It adds freshness and complication to the Highland heather floral honey entrance.  There are also hints of mint and pineapple.  The mid palate blooms with spice overlaying a strong malt richness.  The peat shows up here too in the spice and it waxes into a gentle and very well balanced waft of smoke as the midpalate fades into the turn.  The finish is gentle, without bitterness at first, and moderately long.  There is gentle oak and an array of sweet herbals and lingering gentle peat smoke.   With repeated sipping a bit of bitterness and grain whisky milk tang builds up on the palate - prompting me to take drinks of water to clear it.  

Make no mistake.  This is delicious and I could drink it all day long.  It's rich and yet soft and easy drinking - compulsively, dangerously, easy to drink.  At no point does this call out the imperative to be mixed into a cocktail.  On the contrary it is a delight to sip neat.  The grain whisky component is readily detected - but it plays along in a really nice way with the malt.  I can feel the blenders art here and it's good.  The star of the show is the rich honeyed floral nose and the presence of those flavors in the opening.  The mid palate and finish, while fine, don't play at that level.  But heck, this was (and is) the entry level expression.  I'm really looking forward to tasting my old samples of Johnnie Walker Black!  This is a shocking level of tastiness given where Red Label's flavor signature is at the moment.

****

I'm sure the 86.8 proof helps a bit over the 80 proof that started in the 90s - but it can't explain all or even the lions's share of the differences.  I'll reserve my conclusions for the full vertical of Johnnie Walker Red from the 1930s to today coming up in the weeks or months ahead.  But it's well nigh impossible not to think of Oliver Klimek's post

Has Whisky Become Better, Worse or Just Different? 

Klimek addresses the declining complexity of malt whisky and relates it to increasingly mechanized and homogenized manufacturing methods.  This old Johnny Walker Red is in a vastly different league then the current stuff - or a majority of blends up well over $50-$75 now.  This was ordinary luxury Scotch of the time.  Whisky was simply more complex and tasty in that era.  Or does bottle maturation play a role?  This will be an ongoing debate.  But bottom line - delicious.  I wonder when that stopped?

Further reading / viewing, and corroboration

Oliver Klimek did a Red Label vertical covering this period and comes to many of the same conclusions:
http://www.dramming.com/2012/07/03/comparing-two-old-with-the-current-johnnie-walker-red-label/

Ralfy Mitchell performs this exact same tasting and comparison with more wit, verve, and humor than I could dream of - with the high wire act of a live performance.  He comes with the same conclusions flavor-wise, but attributes the changes to the use of glut stocks and to extended marrying time in the bottle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNw7muIbQX0