What does umami mean?

To the Japanese, it means ‘the essence of deliciousness’, and is often referred to as ‘the fifth taste’.

The literal, scientific definition, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the taste sensation that is produced by several amino acids and nucleotides (such as glutamate and aspartate)”.

But umami is so, so much more than that, especially when it comes to Japanese food.

Meaty, savoury, delicious... it’s almost impossible to truly define what umami tastes like – if it’s ‘umami’, it’s umami. It’s a taste and flavour that is as distinct as it is elusive.

And it is this ‘elusive’ nature’ that is exactly why the latest Johnnie Walker Blue Label Elusive Umami expression is so unique.

Elusive Umami is the latest innovation of Johnnie Walker Master Blender Emma Walker, who joined forces with world-renowned Chef Kei Kobayashi to decode and expertly create a Scotch whisky that pushes the boundaries of what Scotch could be and encapsulates the enigmatic taste of umami, a Japanese word used to identify the ‘fifth taste’.

Kei is the first Japanese chef to have been awarded three Michelin stars in France.

As the first Japanese chef to have been awarded three Michelin stars in France, Kei was the perfect chef for the collaboration, and according to Walker, the wonderful thing about this collaboration was working with Kei to understand what umami means when he is creating a dish, then taking that perspective and turning it into whisky.

“The thing about umami is that it is the most elusive of flavours, but it is created when you combine different ingredients. Johnnie Walker is a blended whisky, which means we are blending and creating something that is delicious, and as great as some of the individual whiskies. So you can see how our two worlds come together perfectly,” Walker said during a recent event in Singapore to launch the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Elusive Umami.

The 46-year-old Kei said he was excited to be able to approach the project from the perspective of a chef.

“If I were a bartender, I might have had too much respect for Blue Label and would not be able to deviate too far away from it. But I’m a chef, so I was thinking, why don’t we create a new Blue Label from scratch?” he said.

“Some say umami was discovered in Japan years ago, but I believe umami can be found in any dish. ‘Umami’ literally means ‘delicious taste’, so when i was pursuing umami in this project, I wanted to pursue what I think is delicious taste is in the whisky, and create something that cannot be compared to any other spirit."

The Elusive Umami is a whisky that pushes the boundaries of what Scotch can be and encapsulates the enigmatic taste of umami.

Delicious is certainly the perfect word to describe the Elusive Umami, which is a truly unique expression of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

On the nose, there are more savoury and maritime notes than the core Blue Label expression, with green grassiness upfront, and a hint of maritime salt at the back.

The palate is where the whisky truly distinguishes itself though. The initial entry on the first sip is sweet, fruit, salty brine and savouriness. The light blood orange, berry fruit notes are also more apparent on the initial sip.

However, it is on subsequent returns to the glass where the magic really happens.

On the second sip, there was something very different: savoury earthy notes, mellow mushroom. Third sip, a more recognisable umami note comes out to play – the salinity of seafood, rich decadent soupy miso, and tempered with sweetness of malt and hint of maritime smoke.

With a bigger mouthful, there’s a much stronger hit of umami. It’s a little like miso, a little lobster and salmon. There's not a lot of mouth coating creaminess, but that savouriness just takes over the palate, lingering long after the last dregs of liquid have gone down your throat.

Walker says only one in 25,000 casks in Diageo's reserves had the right texture, aroma, and character for the Elusive Umami.

For Walker, creating the whisky meant looking through Diageo’s unparalleled reserves of whisky in order to find the perfect casks to blend.

“Only one in 25,000 casks had the right texture, aroma, and character, which, when we blended it together,created that elusive flavour profile,” she said.

“When we first started the project, we thought about the key flavours we wanted to start off with. We immediately thought about the rich meaty flavours we got from Mortlach and Benrinnes, which give a direct link back to Blue Label as well, with those waves of flavour and also a savoury note coming through as well.

“We also wanted the flavours of Johnnie Walker that come from the ocean and also from the Earth, so we thought about Talisker, standing on the edge of the beach with all that salt brine and hints of white pepper coming through as seasoning while we were creating this whisky,” she added.

“Because Scotch whisky is generally sweet and fruity, we wanted these flavours to balance that and bring those different aspects together to create something that is delicious.”

Delicious is certainly the perfect word to describe the Elusive Umami.

To celebrate the launch of Elusive Umami, Johnnie Walker gathered 180 guests from across Asia in Singapore for an epicurean journey to explore and savour the multiple facets of umami and sample the limited-edition Johnnie Walker Blue Label Elusive Umami for the first time.

Hosted within the vicinity of the luxury shopping mall Raffles City, the multi-sensorial gastronomical experience was designed to unlock the mysterious qualities of umami.

The experience kicked off in an artfully designed Heart of Umami space, where Walker and Chef Kei guided us through our first tasting of the unique whisky, which was followed by an evocative pairing with two dishes crafted by Kei himself; an 'amuse-bouche' in the form of caviar and salmon cream buckwheat waffle, and a smocked Scottish lobster with whisky 'bisque'.

From there, guests were then guided through a series of three multi-sensory spaces, each uncovering a different facet of umami – Earth, Wind and Water – before ending with a decadent dessert of chocolate ganache created by Kei.

From start to finish, it was a true journey of deliciousness, one that was perfectly encapsulated by a whisky unlike any other.

For more information about the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Elusive Umami, visit www.johnniewalker.com/en-my/umami.