Johnnie Walker Green Label Set to Re-launch Globally

Diageo is set to keep rolling out the Johnnie Walker Green Label Scotch Whiskey globally after bringing it back to the shelves last year. The popular blend has been available in UK, Australia, US, and Mexico already, and the company says availability will soon stretch to other global markets as well. Diageo’s goal is to re-launch the Green Label brand in all of its markets.

In 2012, the Green Label – a blend made of Talisker, Linkwood, Cragganmore, and CaolIla single malts – was axed in all markets except for Taiwan. This was when the company brought out Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve and Johnnie Walker Platinum Label. Johnnie Walker Green Label was later brought back in limited volumes to the US and Australian markets, garnering a widespread “fantastic reaction” which led to Diageo’s decision for a broader reintroduction.

A statement from them affirmed the well-known fact that Green Label has always had a substantial following around the world. “Releasing limited volumes of it in the US and Australia this year to mark the tenth anniversary of its first introduction has revealed how much consumers have missed Johnnie Walker Green Label and want to see it back,” saidGuy Escolme, Johnnie Walker’s global brand director.

Popular demand is definitely one of the things that have reinstated the Green Label, thanks to its bold flavour and characteristic smokiness. Johnnie Walker master blender, Jim Beveridge, said the challenge is to derive a wide flavour range after maturing the blend in American and European Oak. There is also the matter of making sure that the flavors work in tandem to produce the complexity that connoisseurs appreciate.

“Crafting this blend is all about making the aromas more pronounced and vibrant, allowing us to shape a blend that has the depth of character which just isn’t possible from one malt whisky alone,” Beveridge revealed.

New Island Green Expression

On the side, travel retail shelves now have a new blend malt called Johnnie Walker Island Green, which mixes CaolIla’s Islay Whisky along with Clynelish, Glenkinchie, and Cardhu malts. Johnnie Walker has never made a blended malt that is widely available in travel retail. Only their blended scotches have had that treatment up until now. Island Green has been named as a travel retail exclusive, so it won’t be replacing Green Label at mainstream retailers. The new blend expression is set to start selling in July. The expected retail price is $60 USD per bottle.