JOHNSON RESERVE WHISKY - A NEW NAME IN LUXURY
Earlier this year I attended a splendid lunch at the private members club Oswald's, in the heart of Mayfair. Upon entry our phone cameras were taped over, ensuring we complied with their no photography policy. This is not something I mind, as it meant full dedication to tasting the whisky from our hosts, the Johnson family. It was a lavish luncheon with many of the whisky worlds great and good in attendance. Looking at the crowd, it was obvious the family were keen to impress and get their whisky in the hands of some fine writers. I like their confidence.
Having enjoyed the obligatory Champagne, we took our seats to hear the philosophy behind the brand, its ambitions, and how they are challenging the market. They have a firm belief that age statements are not always an indication of quality and that what is in the glass holds more importance than what is on the label. Why relate price to age, when it should surely be based on quality?
The Johnson Reserve whiskies are about the maturation process, layering flavours through multiple casks, each one acting, in my words, as a seasoning. They are building flavour into each whisky to achieve complexity. They may choose not to state the age of the whisky, but I am fairly certain that given the market they are pitched at, they will not be young. It is easy to say that whisky brands who choose not to provide age statements are all about marketing baloney. I felt differently here - yes we had lunch and tasted the whisky in one of Mayfair’s most exclusive private members clubs, but I felt a sense of integrity. This is a family of standing and not one to put their name at stake with sub-par whisky. With 10k casks under their ownership, quality has to be a prerequisite to ensure future sales. I trust them.
THE WHISKY
The Voyager is an elegant whisky that was matured in Mizunara Oak and finished in Cognac casks. On the nose, delicate aromas of sweet vanilla and incense emerge. The palate is rich and layered with dried fruits, baking spices, and a touch of brown sugar. The interplay between the Mizunara's floral and spice elements and the Cognac’s depth creates a refined complexity. Voyager is priced at £175
The Family Reserve 2022 is complex and sophisticated, meticulously crafted through a unique maturation process in eight distinct cask types. This blend is aged in two peated whisky casks, Californian and Italian red wine casks, Cognac, brandy, Mizunara oak, and virgin French oak, creating a rich and multifaceted profile. On the nose, subtle peat and woodsmoke intertwine with the delicate fragrance of Mizunara oak, offering hints of incense and floral undertones. The palate is layered with an elegant balance of flavours, where the tannins from the virgin French oak bring structure, while the influence of red wine casks contributes ripe fruit notes and a touch of spice. Cognac and brandy casks add a luxurious sweetness, with notes of dried fruits and brown sugar, enhancing the whisky’s depth. The finish is long and opulent, with lingering impressions of fine red wine, Cognac, and a subtle smokiness that adds to the whisky’s complexity. It is priced at £800
Renoir Edition is a true collector’s gem, with only 350 hand-numbered bottles ever made. This Highland single malt comes from an esteemed but undisclosed distillery and undergoes a unique finishing process in French casks that previously held Cognac, Sauvignon Blanc, and Grand Cru wines. The result is a whisky that’s both refined and intricate, with delicate layers of citrus, Italian hazelnut nut gelato, and Victoria sponge, complemented by soft smoke and a mineral undertone. The Cognac cask finish adds a subtle touch of ripe dark fruit that just seems to evolve in the mouth.
What makes this release even more special is that each bottle features Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 1886 painting *Mère Allaitant*, blending art and whisky in a way that feels effortlessly elegant. It will grace the shelves in smart apartments in Knightsbridge and Mayfair, on super yachts and fine country estates. They are looking for a point of difference, uniqueness and a talking point. Johnson Reserve provides this. It is priced at £3500.
THE INTERVIEW
Keen to learn more, I asked Rob Yeatman, Head of Advocacy at Johnson Reserve several questions to fully understand the brand.
What is the background behind the brand and what is its vision for the future?
Johnson Reserve is dedicated to the exploration and evolution of single-malt Scotch whisky. Our aim is to provide new and unprecedented experiences for those who drink our whisky and to expand the concept of what whisky can be while remaining rooted in tradition. We believe that you can respect the great heritage and tradition of Scotch whisky while discovering new ways to surprise and delight whisky connoisseurs.
We achieve this through an innovative approach to cask maturation. Each of our single malts passes through an array of multiple different casks on its journey to completion. Our Family Reserve 2022, for example, journeyed through eight different casks before reaching a flavour and aroma profile that we were happy with. Using this method really evolves a whisky, and allows us to create single malts with very high levels of complexity and balance. Each successive cask builds on what came before. This method gives us the ability to be both very creative and highly technical. We can really design the final flavour profile of our whisky using this approach, and be confident that we have created something that will offer a completely new experience.
We want to bring the conversation back to the experience of the whisky in the glass. There is so much focus right now on what is on the label, rather than what is in the bottle. Whisky is a product that can provide such a huge breadth and depth of tastes, aromas, sensations, ideas and emotions, and we are returning to those roots by taking this new approach.
The Johnson family has 10,000+ casks of whisky - are these stored in their own bonded warehouse or at distilleries throughout Scotland?
We have a bonded warehouse and maturation facility in Glenfarg in Perthshire where we create and store our whisky. We buy in casks of single malt from some of Scotland’s best distilleries, then select the casks it will be matured in. We handle every stage of the process ourselves from that point, from the beginning of the maturation process up to hand numbering our labels.
With so many casks, how is a release determined? Do you have a vision and then select the barrels that best fit that vision?
One of the really exciting things about our approach is that it allows us to be very creative and design-focused in how we make our whisky. Once we have found a batch of single malt that has a great base for us to build on, we can then select the casks that it will journey through based on the unique flavours and aromas that they offer. The casks used in maturing a whisky make up at least 80% of the final character, so we can take a great quality aged single malt as our starting point and use our approach to create something completely new and original.
You are using up to 8 different types of barrels in each expression. Do you see this as building layers of flavour and complexity to make a whisky greater than the sum of its parts?
Eight casks really is the tip of the iceberg for us. We have whiskies in production and awaiting release where we have used as many as 30 different casks to create whiskies of staggering complexity. As the entire batch passes through each cask in succession, every step in the process builds on what came before. Using this approach rather than dividing and re-marrying the whisky builds harmony as well as complexity, as it allows the character of each cask to integrate and work alongside each other. Eight casks used in succession will give a more harmonious character than, for example, a blend married from eight separate casks.
Although you have decided not to publish age statements, and focus on the actual whisky, will there ever be an indication of the youngest whisky in each blend?
We made a conscious decision not to discuss age statements or the distilleries we source our whisky from. It is our maturation process that makes our whisky what it is, and we feel that age statements and provenance are less relevant to our approach. We recognise and have great respect for the different styles of whisky produced by each individual Scotch whisky distillery, but because we are creating something that is so far removed from that starting point, we feel it would detract from the discussion that we are having with our consumers.
There is a strong fixation on age statement and distillery at the moment, and we would rather focus on how our whisky is experienced in the glass. We specify the casks we use, as this allows people to see how we created the whisky as they experience it. Age is a guarantee of maturity, which is currently interpreted by the market as value, but is not a guarantee of complexity, quality or originality of experience. Equally, you can take a batch of the same original whisky from a distillery, and using our maturation approach, create very different end results. We have a range coming out later this year ‘The X Collection’, where we took the same original whisky and divided it among ten different small casks. It’s a great demonstration of just how much the cask influences the finished whisky.
The 2022 Family Reserve is drawn from 8 casks from an undisclosed Highland distillery. The whisky uses Mizunara and Islay casks. Are these casks that you have purchased empty and had filled, or did the distillery fill them, and you chose them?
Our Family Reserve 2022 was matured in two peated casks, two fine red wine casks, brandy, cognac, Mizunara and virgin French oak. The complexity that this particular range of casks has created is phenomenal. Apart from distillation, we handle every step of the process ourselves. We buy empty casks from cooperages worldwide, then select the casks we feel could create the best and most interesting finished whisky from the single malt we purchase from the distillery. Family Reserve 2022 started out as a single batch of single malt from a distillery which, as you say, we have not disclosed.
What can you tell me about Renoir - your flagship whisky?
Masters Series: Renoir Edition really is the pinnacle of our current range. It offers an extremely elegant, delicate flavour profile created using some exceptional Cognac and French white wine casks. There is even a touch of rancio in there, which is such a rare character to find in a whisky, and adds tremendous depth. Conceptually, Renoir Edition pays homage to the artistry of Pierre Auguste Renoir. The label is a licensed imprint of his work Mère Allaitant. The Johnson family own the original artwork, so each bottle really is a work of art. It’s like owning a museum piece as well as an incredible bottle of whisky. Renoir Edition is a single cask bottling of only 350 bottles. We release it in annual allocations, with only 75 bottles available for 2024. It is available by private ballot and is also listed at Hedonism Wines and Tomoka Fine and Rare. Renoir Edition has garnered a lot of interest from whisky collectors due to the small number of bottles produced and the interest from the art world, but is also a great whisky to savour, bringing out the decanter to mark those special occasions.
You have a membership program in place. What are the benefits of this?
Our members are the first to hear about our upcoming releases, private events and tastings. They also have priority access to our more exclusive releases. Some of our whiskies are produced in such small quantities that they will never appear on general sale, and our members will have exclusive access to these.
What are the future plans for releases? Is there a schedule in place
We have a number of releases due later this year. The X Collection as mentioned earlier will soon be available in very limited quantities. This is a really beautiful exploration of the role of the cask in creating flavour. Each of the ten expressions in this collection was matured in a different small cask, creating ten very distinct single malts from the same starting batch, with only 100 of each expression available.
We are also working on a new range of expressions that will delve further into how flavour is created using multiple different casks. When you consider the level of complexity created by the eight casks used for Family Reserve 2022, we are very excited by the results we are getting from using even greater numbers of casks to create some very unique flavour profiles. We look forward to talking more about these upcoming releases nearer the time.
Thank you to the family for a spectacular lunch and tasting in the most stunning of rooms. I shall look forward with great intent to your future releases.
https://johnson-reserve.com