Adrie Reinders

Yesterday I was invited for an event that had me questioning myself what I was going to do there exactly – nl. a special occasion to which I had been invited by one of my great contacts David van den Noord – tasked with organising a whiskey tasting for Johnnie Walker Blue Label at the Miljonairsfair in Amsterdam.

There are three reasons it was rather unusual that I actually went to the event:
Firstly – I hardly ever drink
Secondly – I knew it would eat up the better part of my afternoon;
and lastly – I am not that crazy about things like the Miljonairsfair.

But I have to admit that by the end of the afternoon, I came to the conclusion that I was right to go. Lunch was held amidst a group of very interesting people – the hospitality shown us by Johnnie Walker exceptional, and I learnt a lot about Whiskey. I must admit that I even quite enjoyed both the Gold and the Blue labels and ti was very interesting to hear the introduction given by Scotsman Ian William. The Blue Label was served with smoked salmon – a truly wonderful combination and the Gold, icecold – with a lovely piece of meet – another great match. Johnnie Walker whiskeys do well as accompaniment to smoked dishes.

For people that are really interested in the difference between Blue and Gold Label – here follows a short description:

Gold Label: just like the Green Label, this is a blended malt of about 15 different single malt whiskies. The recipe is based on annotations by Alexander II, who invented this special blend in the honour of John Walker. For this particular label – a number of 18 year old single malts are used as well as a few rare 15 year old single malts.
Blue Label: the crown jewel in the assortment! Blue Label is composed of the rarest and finest whiskies of the top Scottisch distilleries. Some Malt Whiskies that are used in the blend, are aged for 50 to 60 years. Bottles are numbered and sold in a silk-lined box. The price of a Blue Label bottle is, not surprisingly, around 200 euros.