Mister Cocktail

One of the first gins that was introduced after the renewed interest in gins in the 90s, was Martin Miller’s. According to the brand’s story, Mr. Miller sat in a bar, contemplating on life with some good friends over a mediocre gin & tonic, when the idea of creating his own brand of gin sprang to mind. Miller was a photographer-turned-antiques connoisseur-turned-hotel owner, and had a good perception of the historic value of gin.

The 6 main botanicals in this gin are distilled in “Angela”, copper pot still built in 1904 by John Doore. The 3 stages of pot still-distillation are named Heads, Heart and Tails. The first part contains very strong alcohol and harsh flavours. The second part is the best part, well balanced. The third part is lower in alcohol and weaker in flavours. It is very common to re-use the heads and tails in a new distillation-cycle, but these are not re-used for Martin Miller’s, that only uses the heart of the distillate. The dried peels of the citrusfruits (Orange, lemon and lime) are distilled separately after which they are blended with the ‘base-spirit’.

To finalize the product, Martin Miller’s is blended with Icelandic water: in his vision this is the softest and purest water. On top of that, the Icelandic people believe that water is a living entity and has a spirit.

The bottle: The long and slender bottle displays the countries England and Iceland with a dotted line connecting these 2 with the background of longitude/latitude lines. It also displays the 6 main botanicals: Iris, Juniper, Cassia, Liquorice, Coriander and Angelica.
91/100

The nose: Strong juniper and angelica hit the nose immediately, waking up your senses. There’s a sweet undertone of liquorice, cinnamon and orange in the nose and some fresh notes of lemon and coriander.
If you leave the neat spirit in the glass for a little while, the citrus notes become more apparent.
94/100

The contents: The gin really blossoms in the mouth, with all classic gin tastes there: the juniper gives a pleasant sting, with the orris mellowing this nicely and connecting it at the same time with the sweeter notes I mentioned above. The different expressions of citrus play a more dominant role in the taste: orange, lemon and lime come in after the first juniper hit.
Note: this is the first gin of which my lovely Misses Cocktail says that it’s almost too good to mix, because it tastes amazing when drunk neat.
95/100

The mixability: Martin Miller’s is a great ingredient for mixing drinks, even though the Misses might disagree. Classic cocktails like the White Lady and Tom Collins should taste great. I tried it in the Dry Martini, stirred with Martini Extra Dry,  lemon bitters and a lemon zest.

But my main focus is of course with Tonic Water:

Fever Tree: These tastes combined generate more bitterness and a more earthy taste, which are a great addition to the taste. The citrus notes get a lot of room to flourish, mainly the orange which give it a long and sweet aftertaste.
9.5/10
Fentiman’s: The taste of this mix is a bit more soft than with Fever Tree, with a long and citrussy aftertaste. The bitters are more dominant,
8.5/10
1724: I had to use a little bit more gin to balance this mix, although the 1724 is the softest-tasting tonic water of these 3. The mix really benefits from adding fresh lemon to it
9/10

Overall: This is a true gem, and highly recommendable! It is both challenging for the very experienced and demanding gin-drinker and highly accessible for new members for the gin-appreciating part of the world. I’m very glad to have this spirit in my collection, to quench my appetite for juniper!
94/100

The brand Johnnie Walker launched it’s first blended whisky in 1865. In fact, before 1860 it was illegal to sell blended whisky’s in Scotland. Black Label was launched in 1909, and continued on the first blended whisky Alexander Walker (John’s son) launched in 1865 as Walker’s Old Special (re-branded to Extra Special Old Highland in 1906). Enough with the dates now and on to the whisky!

Black Label is one of the most sold blended Scotch in the world and each expression has become world famous by now. And each different expression (you know: red, black, green, gold and blue) has it’s own drinker. It makes a lot of sense in my opinion to build further on each expression to ……. their fan base.

When tasting the ‘normal’ Black Label it always surprises me how complex this whisky actually is. This blend of a good 40 different whisky’s, each aged for at least 12 years, can be recognised by it’s 4 main flavour characteristics: fresh fruit, like apple, pear and orange – dried fruit like apricot and dates – vanilla, coming from the use of Bourbon-barrels – and smokiness, which comes from the Islay whisky’s used in the blending process.

It is a clear move to position Johnnie Walker Black Label as a brand of it’s own by launching the Double Black. For this brand they have chosen to follow the taste-profile of Black Label rather than the minimum age of the whisky’s. The 4 main tasting notes are still there, but are put in a new dimension by blending in more smokiness in the Double Black. This influences the taste in a very pleasant way, and does what it’s supposed to be doing: introduce their fan base to some slightly more mature flavours.

The bottle: The Double Black has a significantly larger and heavier bottle. With it’s dark glass and gold highlights on the label it really stands on it’s own.
90/100

The nose: Clear peatiness promises a much heavier taste than one is used to get from the Black Label. There’s pleasant sweet notes that you can recognize as well from it’s older brother, giving a good indication about the balance between these 2 elements. Obviously, a lot of similarities between the two, but also strong characteristics specific to the Double Black.
88/100

The contents: The smoke is much less dominant in the taste than it is on the nose. One of the most significant changes the smoke does to the components, is to the element of vanilla. In Black Label this element brings a rather sweet note to the palate. In the Double Black it has changed to a more creamy texture – much more soft and less sweet. It also appears to me that the mouthfeel is more silky and a bit thicker.  Pleasant fruitnotes like apple and raisin (a small percentage of the barrels JW uses in Sherry-cask) keep giving that sweet balance to the Double Black.
86/100

Conclusion: This is absolutely a great next-step whisky for the Black Label fan, but also a nice very buy if you like some smokiness in your whisky, but not too much. The combination with the sweeter tones is a very pleasant one and I think can introduce  some less experienced drinkers to the more peated whisky’s.
87/100