Some fantastic points on our whiskies by Jim Murray from the Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2010. Here are the top 5 point-getters in our portfolio that are available and in-stock. As a point of reference, the Whisky of the Year received 97.5 Points.

Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible Award Winner 2010

JOHNNIE WALKER BLACK LABEL
“Best overall Whisky aged 5 – 12 Years, 95.5 POINTS”
CSPC: 7880
PRICE: $49.95
“(Nose) Pretty sharp grain: hard and buffeting the nose; a buffer of yielding smoke, apple pie and delicate spice cushions the encounter. (Palate) if there is a silkier delivery on the market today, I have not seen it: this is sublime stuff with the grains singing the sweetest hymns as they go down, taking with them a near perfection of weighty smoke lightened by brilliantly balanced barley which leans towards both soft apple and crème brulee; (Finish) this reassuringly rigid grains re-finish underlines the good age of the whiskies used; (Balance and Complexity) here it is: one of the world’s most masterful whiskies back in all its complex glory. A bottle like this is like being visited by an old lover. It just warms the heart and excites.”

Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2010 top point-getters.

JOHNNIE WALKER GOLD LABEL
“96 POINTS”
CSPC: 128865 (this is the special gift pack )
PRICE: $99.95
“(Nose) At first it seems a level nose with little happening. But look again…deeper. Stirring in the glass are diced apples and moist raisins, a squirt of something peaty, and a honey and golden syrup mix. Sweet yet weighty with just enough smoke and oak to anchor. (Taste) the silky arrival magnifies the smoky edge to this: some Caol Ila here, I guess, doing what Caol Ila does best – buck up blends. But also that hallmark honey thread is there to savour, linking beautifully with soft grains carrying vanilla and fudge; meanwhile playful spices…play…”

DALWHINNIE 15 YO
“95 POINTS”
CSPC: 238097
PRICE: $84.99
“(Nose) Sublime stuff: a curious mixture of coke smoke and peat-reek wafts teasingly over the gently honied malt. A hint of melon offers some fruit but the caressing malt stars; (Taste) that rarest of combinations: at once silky and malt intense, yet at the same time peppery and tin-hat time for the tastebuds, but the silk wins out and a sheen of barley sugar coats everything , soft peat included; (Finish) some coca and coffee notes, yet the pervading slightly honied sweetness means that there is no bitterness that cannot be controlled; (Balance and Complexity) a malt it is hard to decide whether to drink or bathe in: I suggest you do both. One of the most complete mainland malts of them all. Know anyone who reckons they don’t like whisky? Give them a glass of this – that’s them cured. Oh, if only the average masterpiece could be this good.”

LAGAVULIN 16 YO
“95 POINTS”
CSPC: 207126
PRICE: $124.99
“Much more like the Lagavulin of old with unfettered development and delivery. Befitting the great distillery this unquestionably is.”

CROWN ROYAL SPECIAL RESERVE
“94.5 POINTS”
CSPC: 321208
PRICE: $54.99
“(Nose) A clean and attractively spiced nose with cinnamon and the faintest pinch of allspice leading the way: rye at work, one presumes; the fruit is clean and precise with weightier grape overshadowing a green apple freshness; (Taste) the old rye impact has been lessened by a safety net of cleaner fruits, but something hard and chewy still clings to the palate; the rye really does deliver towards the middle though. (Finish) dries and dusts up; sawdusty in part for all the fruitiness. Vague spices throb, the rye – or is it an echo of rye, like a lost leg – tries to make itself heard; (Balance and Complexity) Complex, well weighted and simply radiant: it is like looking at a perfectly shaped, gossamer – clad Deb at a ball. The work astonishingly well here (they appear to be of the malted , ultra – fruity variety).

Kris Steed
RESERVE BRANDS GROUP
A division of Diageo Canada