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John Walker & Sons Private Collection 2016 Edition Is a Serious Whiskey

John Walker & Sons Private Collection 2016 EditionThe John Walker & Sons Private Collection, now in its third year of limited edition release, serves as a higher end variant in the expansive Johnnie Walker blended Scotch whisky stable.

The 2016 edition has been out for a bit now, but information until of late has been somewhat scarce. Its recent arrival in key markets, however, reveals all one needs to know before deciding whether to lay out £550, or around $800 USD.

The John Walker & Sons Private Collection 2016 Edition, limited to 8,888 individually numbered bottles globally, is also called Fine Honeyed Notes. It is blended from whiskies drawn from over 100 casks to create three vattings. The casks in question came from a range of Johnnie Walker distilleries, including Cameronbridge, and four now silent distilleries: Caledonian, Cambus, Carsebridge, and Port Dundas.

All of this whisky, creating what’s described as the most complex Private Collection to date, were brought together into two styles:  vanilla, woody, fudge notes most expressive of cask character; and a sweeter, estery, honey character from both cask and distillery. For the third vatting, meanwhile, a Highland single malt matured in American oak “from a study in cask ends” was chosen. All were laid down in casks for a few months to allow more flavors to develop.

“We couldn’t have achieved the soft sweetness and sophistication of the John Walker & Sons Private Collection 2016 Edition without the incredible access we have to rare casks of single grain Scotch whiskies and our experimental stock,” said Johnnie Walker master blender Jim Beveridge in a statement. “We chose samples from over 100 casks to experiment with at the blending table, and it was wonderful work with the many subtle variations of grain whisky flavours and such a refined highland single malt to marry into this elegant expression of Fine Honeyed Notes.”

As with previous Private Collection bottlings, it is presented in a rather fancy box.

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