Johnnie Walker has unveiled Johnnie Walker Blue Label Elusive Umami (ABV 43%) – a new limited-edition expression inspired by the flavour also known as the fifth taste.
It is available in numbered bottles exclusively at Johnnie Walker Princes Street, before launching worldwide on 16 October.
The new Scotch was created by Master Blender Emma Walker and Japanese Chef Kei Kobayashi of Parisian restaurant Kei, which holds three Michelin stars.
The pair joined forces to create a whisky that encapsulates the inscrutable taste of umami, a Japanese word used to describe what is a hard-to-define flavour, possessing mysterious qualities.
The result is “a beautifully balanced Scotch of sweet and savoury flavours, with notes of blood oranges and red berries with sweet wood spice, a touch of smoked meat, a hint of salt and pepper with a long, sweet fruit finish”.
Selected casks from inland and coastal distilleries were hand-picked at the height of their maturation for their unique umami profile.
Johnnie Walker Master Blender Emma Walker explained further: “Only one in 25,000 casks in our unparalleled reserves of more than 10 million maturing casks made the cut in our painstaking search for that elusive flavour profile – each expression of whisky was hand-picked to create an umami profile, just like ingredients for a recipe, allowing us to bring the unique character of this innovative whisky to life.”
