Johnnie Walker Double Black
 

Was through SYD the other day and they were pushing an enhanced version of JW Black. I was hesitant to even sample it as most duty free scotch blends tend to be over-priced and under-whelming, aimed at the affluent travelers with more money than taste. However, I succumbed to the spiel which had it that Lagavulin and other Islay single malts were added to the Black, giving it a deeper and peatier taste. And indeed it did, turning this into a very fine blended scotch. I bought a bottle which was actually packaged with a bottle (both liters) of the regular Black and choice of a small roller bag or messenger bag for A$99. (This made transiting at SFO rather more easy as I carried it onto my SYD-SFO flight, but then after clearing customs had UA check the roller bag onto my SFO-YYZ flight.) The Double Black itself was going for a rather pricey A$66 a liter.

Apparently Diageo has been selling this at select Duty Frees since February for a six month test. IIRC it was available at SYD, JFK, SIN and a couple of others. If it sells well they will release it more widely at more Duty Frees. Hope it does succeed as this is a very pleasant blend for those of us into Islay single malts. Hope it's still around when I pass through SYD in September so I can stock up in case it doesn't make it...and I will have something quite special.

(According to a post on a whiskey BB this is how JW used to taste before WWII and before the sweetened it up for mass commercialization in the 50s and beyond.)

Dubai Duty Free has it and it is quite popular with the guys I work with. I usually buy gin.

I saw it at SIN a few weeks ago and blew right past it, I wish I knew it was blended with Islay single malts. I'm not a fan of JW, but love Islay single malts!

It would have been nice to try it, plus the roller bag looked pretty nice.:)

Indeed, an islay blend sounds yummy. And it sounds like a decent deal to boot.

Can you get this in the US anywhere other than the duty frees bought a bottle in NRT last week and its already gone
jeff

As I posted originally it is not yet decided if it will be sold more widely but even then it would only be at more Duty Frees not at normal retail outlets in various countries. The supply is too limited to distribute widely and cover marketing costs. I'm hoping it's still available at SYD next month so I can get a couple of more bottles...

I tasted this a couple of weeks ago in SYD. It was good, but overpriced.
A$66 is about USD$59, and for a few bucks more, I'd buy the real thing Lagavulin, or it's less expensive cousin, other Islay single malts.

No way will I spend A$66 on JW. FYI, I thought SYD duty free was very expensive vs other airports.

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

Thanks for the heads up on this...

SYD is getting more expensive but the package deal of A$99 was a reasonable trade off considering those of us who do not live in the US tend to pay our health care premiums through our purchases of alcohol. (And I'd rather pay $5 a bottle more every couple of months than $800 a month to an insurance company!) But also, this stuff isn't widely available so makes a good offering to one's whiskey loving friends.

What I miss at SYD were those 200ml bottles of JW Black that went for A$5 a bottle. Worked out to be cheaper than the liter bottles. I think they're up to A$9 now so not a good deal.

Dan, how much do you pay for Lagavulin in the Big Apple these days....??

Mi Amigo. By responding to your question, I'm 1 post closer to 10,000. Since July 1, I've been trying to save my responses for 'important things' :p and this response is certainly important. :D

Just north of Manhattan, the usual price is in the low $70's. I just googled and found someone that's selling it at $59.99 (probably sold out). ;)

9993.
Slowly on the way to 10,000.

Gracias Dan..... amazing price... when are you coming down to EZE (finally.....) so that you can shlep down a case of the stuff for me...???? :p :D

Just found the JW Double Black in FRA Duty Free at the B gates. Price is 36.90 Euros for 1L.

That means they've decided to roll it out further afield and not drop it...unless the stuff didn't sell well at the test Duty Frees and they're moving stock around to dump and get rid of inventory. But the Euro pricing seems to be in line with the Aussie pricing.

So did you taste it? Buy a bottle?

Did indeed buy one since I have been looking since January, but never traveled through any of the 6 test markets. Store did not seem to have a lot displayed. One employee said they have had it for about two years which we all know is not correct. Another employee mentioned he did not when they started getting it, but only noticed the Double Black just recently.

Bottle is made with smoked glass so looks very dark. The outer box had a dark wood-grain print as the background. I am a JW Black and Green drinker, and this fell right in between. However, the scotch was darker in appearance than Green. Smoother, but not as peaty as Green. For the price, I will stick with Black ($20) and Green ($30) for 750mL. There are better values out there, but I will keep picking one up each time I see it to support the product.

Like the Green that used to be only available in Europe, they expanded it to the US and now one can buy it at Costco. Hope they do the same with Double Black. Interesting note is the bottle's label does not state the number of years of the old scotch in the blend. Black is 12yrs and Green is 15yrs. Would be interesting to see how many years Double Black contains which might justify the premium price difference.