Johnnie Walker Bottles Ranked on Drinkability: From Harsh to Heavenly

Johnnie Walker’s range is vast: Red Label to Blue, budget to luxury, but which bottles actually drink the best? Not collectability, not marketing buzz. Just honest, straight up drinkability.

I tasted through the core UK lineup to answer that. Here’s how each one fared, from the harshest pour to the most dangerously easy dram.

Red Label

You all saw this one coming first. I don’t see anything wrong with Red Label from a marketing perspective; it does what you need it to do for a certain price. However, when compared to any other bottle in the range, it may as well not exist. 

When it comes to a budget, worldly available blend, this hits the spot for friendliness to your wallet. If you choose to even upgrade to Black Label for a few pounds more, it’s more than worth it for the extra flavour and complexity. 

If you’re mixing at home, then this is perfectly fine. In long drinks, it can actually shine better than a lot of its more expensive big brother bottles. 

Double Black 

A possible shock for some with this placement, but Double Black was never a whisky that wowed me. It’s an interesting approach to making a great whisky a little more interesting, but it fell a little flat. 

By adding more peated single malts and more grain whiskies to Black Label, you get something which is smokier and sweeter. So if BBQ food is your go-to, then this could be a winner for you. 

Personally, I just wanted a more intense Black Label. Something that took a fantastic foundation and pushed it into a world that competes with something like Compass Box Peat Monster, but sadly, it didn’t. 

It’s a fine bottle to pick up when it’s on sale somewhere, but for £40 a bottle, there are much better options in the Johnnie Walker line-up. 

Gold Label

Again, this could be quite a shock! Gold Label is an unusual bottle in the Johnnie Walker range. For me, it’s the softest of the styles before you start spending a lot of money on their premium range. 

It’s always had this refreshing apple, honey-driven flavour that comes from malts like Cardhu and Royal Lochnagar. At £40-£50 ($45-$60) a bottle, though, you should be getting more from it, and you can get more if you were to go for Black Label or Green Label. 

I understand that this could be a favourite of yours if you don’t want a very peat-driven flavour profile, for that it’s great as the peated whiskies in this are less/more restrained. 

Spending a little less on Black Label or Green Label will give a wider, better value flavour spectrum.

Blue Label

What does Blue Label offer us as whisky drinkers? Well, it’s a layered, easy-drinking scotch whisky with a very fun history and some rather stunning packaging…but it could have more going on considering what you pay for it. 

Now there are other, limited releases of Blue Label, but when it comes to the core release, you get these apple, caramel, gentle grain notes that are backed up with a little smokiness from some rather old peated whiskies. 

Containing whiskies from seven years old through to fifty-year-old or more in stocks, I certainly believe it’s a whisky that we should all try and make up our own minds about. For me, though, if I had that kind of money to spend on a bottle that I’d drink and replace all the time, I’d go for other bottles in this range which have similar flavours for much less money. 

Johnnie Walker Blue Label: Ghost & Rare Series

Now here is something special. If you’re looking to spend a lot of money on a blended whisky, I don’t think you can do better than the taste that is offered to you in the Ghost & Rare Series from Johnnie Walker. 

There have been a few releases of this over the years, but if you can source any of the bottles that focused on Brora or Glenury Royal, those are absolutely divine treats when it comes to flavour profiles and history. 

The elephant in the room is that these bottles are double the price of a bottle of Blue Label, but I honestly think they do double the amount of work. 

I’m sitting here comparing a glass of Blue Label to Glenury Royal Ghost & Rare, and the similarities are non-existent. You wouldn’t even think these came from the same blending house. 

The Blue Label pales in comparison to the insane levels of creamy butterscotch and dark chocolate that comes out of the Glenury release. But bear in mind this comes at a bigger cost, but a better flavour. 

Johnnie Walker 18 Year Old

For me, this is easily the best older Johnnie Walker bottle on the market. An eighteen-year-old blend that packs loads of flavour for the money you pay for it. 

When this used to be called Johnnie Walker Platinum, I loved it then, too. It has so many juicy, rich, fruity flavours in it. Then you get these hits of milk chocolate, nuts, honey, a little hit of smoke, and some notes that remind me of Barbados rum. 

It’s a brilliant expression of what older blended whiskies should be. Plus, if age statements are part of what you’re into whisky for, this is one of the best-priced whiskies in the whole world at that age. There aren’t many single malts that could take this on for flavour and value at that price point. 

Black Label 12 Year Old

My favourite. The bottle that I’ve probably bought the most of in my entire life of whisky drinking. 

The first time I ever tried Black Label, it changed my entire perception of what flavours could be in a glass. It was smoky, spicy, sweet, grainy, had a 12-year-old age statement, and at the time its RRP was about £23 ($20-$30). It’s a little more expensive these days, but I honestly believe that when it comes to taste, this is what Johnnie Walker is all about. 

This bottle can do anything you want it to and has a taste profile that summarises Scottish whisky in a fantastically affordable and approachable way. 

In so many different ways, this bottle deserved to top the list, but there is one more that really does show off what Johnnie Walker is capable of when it comes to the best drinking bottle in their range. 

Green Label 15 Year Old

Here we are, Ladies and Gentlemen. The best bottle of whisky when it comes to drinkability in the Johnnie Walker core range. 

A fifteen-year-old blended malt at 43% ABV that showcases some of the best single malt whiskies that Johnnie Walker and Diageo have in their stable. Consisting of a foundation of Linkwood, Caol Ila, Cragganmore, and Talisker, with some other malts possibly kicking around in it, too. This combines all of the sweet, peachy, and lemon-driven flavors of Linkwood and Cragganmore, with those saltier, smokier, coastal elements of Talisker and Caol Ila. 

It does all of this for less than £50 ($70) a bottle and is coming in at a minimum of fifteen years old. It’s an absolute no-brainer when it comes to the quality of taste, style, and value when it comes to Johnnie Walker.

Green Label: The Undisputed Blend King?

Agree with the ranking? Disagree violently? Let us know your go-to dram and which Johnnie Walker you always leave on the shelf.