Johnnie Walker Blue Label

I really like the Blue Label, and it's my opinion that blue label gets a more critical eye in reviews due to the price tag and marketing bliss which sets up perfectly for a big fall. Thus, I strongly believe this whisky routinely suffers from a sort of negative confirmation bias going in. We know it's not that good and go looking for the flaws to brink this cocky, arrogant, over-rated beast down. If it we're $60 and not highly touted, possible many would go looking for all the wonderful attributes making it a value whisky. I'm a believer in rating the liquid in the bottle and not letting price or marketing color the review, and this whisky is just too controversial I think to get that kind of review. However, with that being said...I couldn't agree with you more about Johnnie Walker Green...an amazing blend. It's every bit as good as the Blue in my book and for a much better price. Yes, give me 3 bottles of green over 1 blue any day.

@Indynoir, my friend I couldn't agree more with you. I've seen so many reviews that just hammered on the Blue label, again and again, saying it was crappy, over rated, etc etc. Is it crappy? Definitely not! Is it overrated? In my opinion yes. It's a nice little whisky and like I said I think it's biggest flaw is that it's just a little too easy going for the price tag without any oomph behind it that I like to see in my whiskies, especially my more costly ones.

Johnnie Walker Blue sort of reminds me of quite a few of the Australian whiskies. My brother in law was visiting Limeburners, one of my favorite distilleries, and while there a few of the whiskies had his eye, specifically the cask strengths. Problem is that the cask strengths run from $350 to $500 a bottle. And so I received an sms from him that basically said that he'd love a bottle, but at that price he could be picking up a Stagg or a Handy from Buffalo Trace and still have money left over. Blue is the same way. Nice whisky but at the $200 to $250 that I've seen it sell for I can pick up some AWESOME whiskies and have money left over. It really makes me wish that they'd drop the price point on it. Even $120 I could understand, but just not $200.

You have written a fair review on a brand I believe many others struggle to do so, so nice work! Though I would have probably rated a bit higher. Over rated in popular culture but still a nice whisky is my consensus as well. And yes...the bashing of blue seems to be quite overdone at times and thus ironically under rated in other circles. I read another member who coined the phenomenon "reverse snobbery," which I thought summed it up quite well. I'm always perplexed when I see people give Green and Black ratings in the high 80's, and then give Blue a 75-80. There is something out of sorts going on there...not that I could never see someone enjoying one of those more than the blue, but I've sampled all three several times and it's hard for me to imagine Black consistently getting higher ratings than Blue, and yet it does more often than not among whisky forums, or on-line gurus. For me there is no comparison between Blue and Black. Black is nice, but it's far simpler than blue. Green however another story, but still interesting how it's so consistently rated much higher than the blue which I think holds its own to Green. Of course, on this site three reviews have blue at 32, 60, 70...while the lowest review for Black is 75. I would assume those crazy low marks for blue are distorting things quite a bit. So yes....my guess is the liquid in the bottle is not being reviewed with the same objectivity as other brands, but rather the liquid is being reviewed versus unrealistic expectations and annoyance related to the bravado of the brand image, and thus the head scratching marks. However, I must say $120 still sounds a bit steep for this bottle. I might purchase regularly if it was priced closer to Green, or at least Gold. I must confess I'm not a huge Blue fan despite how this may sound, it's simply there is some psychology with this brand I find fascinating.

@Indynoir Thanks for that compliment! I REALLY strive to judge the whisky in the glass, not the hype, however I'm willing to bet that if this whisky was sitting at $100 or cheaper it probably would have moved up a point or two. The reason I say I'd be willing to pay up to $120 or so for a bottle of this is because over here the Green Label can run anywhere from $60 to $75 a bottle, not sure how much it runs in the US.

As for the reverse snobbery I can only agree with you. It's one of those situations where I think people like to be able to say "Look how high my tastes are, Blue label sucks etc." Mind you that's just a sneaky feeling. On that same note I think you sometimes see that reverse snobbery on older whiskies, more expensive whiskies and Silent distilleries. I think that most people forget that above $200 or so, you're more paying for how good other people think the whisky not how good it really is. At that price point you're paying to try something more for the thrill of trying something like that, i.e a 50 yr old whisky, a cask strength silent distillery, the experience of it, not bang for buck.