Monday, May 21, 2007

Malt Mission 2007 #86

J & B Rare
Blended Scotch Whisky
40% abv
£14
$23.65(CAD)

With visiting mates Jed and Beth back off home to Canada, this morning calls for a J&B in their honour. What a way to start week whatever in this malt mission. And I am off to work in 15 mins. Will edit later...

In 1831 Albert Brooks bought Giacomo Justerini’s(est. 1749) London wineshop and renamed it Justerini & Brooks. Their ‘club’ blend was successful locally, but after created J&B with the American market in mind, their international success began. Immediately after prohibition in the U.S.A., J&B was introduced and pushed in New York and by the 1960s had become the leading brand of scotch whisky in the US. They built Auchroisk distillery in 1960s. The company was convinced that the lighter style whiskies with little or no Islay influence appealed widely, and with annual sales of 6 million cases annually, today it is the second biggest seller in the world of whisky. They emphasize the “party” attitude in their marketing and ad campaigns choosing to target the party culture over the connoisseur culture. Their new “-6” was a mystery to me and I wonder how it sells, to whom, etc. (NB. it has been discontinued)
In Spain you can get a 15yo J & B and it is really great.

This is the bottle of booze Kurt Russell's character, McReady, carries around in John Carpenter's The Thing.

Does or has included single malts Auchroisk, Benrinnes, Glen Spey, Knockando, Strathmill, and Tamdhu.

TASTING NOTES:

The crumble top of an apple crumble, brown sugar, oats. Granola bars. Light fruitiness. Peach.

Very soft flavours in the mouth with a firm grain crispiness. The flavours are quite silent until after swallowing when some oak and spice emerge against the vanilla grains.

SUMMARY:

Soft and crisp, balaced sweet and dry oak, nothing too intrusive (or memorable). This is blended whisky designed perfectly for throwing on your optic and pumping til it's dry. Not that I would ever think of doing that...

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2 comments:

talisker said...

This is the first tasting of J&B I have seen on the web. I agree that for what it is (a light blend) it is good.

Jason's Scotch Whisky Reviews said...

I'm not a fan of this grainy, sugar twin liquid.