A wee dram or six

Joe managed to wrangle PT, me and him some last minute tickets to a whisky tasting last week. Johnnie Walker were being hosted by the Cambridge Wine Merchants at their store on Cherry Hinton Road. We were walked through a brief history of Johnnie Walker and then guided through the tasting of six different whiskies from their colour codes range: Black Label (very passable)
Double Black (strong, perfect for a bothy in a hoolie)
Gold Reserve (sweet, ideal for a beach at sunset)
Platinum (spicy)
Blue (tasty)
Blue label King George V (replicating a turn of the century blend, including malt from the closed Port Ellen distillery, complex flavour with coffee notes).
These were accompanied by smoked salmon, mature cheddar, oatcakes and crusty bread.
I think my favourite dram was probably the Gold Reserve, which is just as well as it is certainly much more in my price range than the King George V (at ~£550/bottle). Normally I would pick a smokier scotch but the Gold Reserve was something a bit different and I think I will try take a bottle on a sunny holiday at some point. Typically I would write off blends as inferior to a 'real' single malt, but this evening opened my eyes to the possibility of complex and balanced flavours in blended whisky. It's something I will be much more open to in future!
A final note, Cambridge Wine Merchants was a great venue. They do a wide variety of tasting events including a fantastic sounding sherry and tapas evening in mid-May which I will be endeavouring to attend!