Walker (left) spent almost 12 months working with Rousteing on the new Johnnie Walker Vault expressions. — Photos: Handout
What do you get when the master blender of a renowned Scotch whisky brand meets an acclaimed couture fashion designer?
The answer: A whisky that is unlike anything Johnnie Walker has ever created.
The Scotch brand recently named acclaimed French couture designer Olivier Rousteing as the first cultural partner under its new global luxury platform, Johnnie Walker Vault.
Its master blender, Emma Walker, was tasked with working with Rousteing, 40, to create a unique whisky that would represent not only him, but also mark Johnnie Walker’s first foray into the luxury whisky segment.
In the end, Walker and Rousteing came up with not just one, but four different whiskies, which make up The Couture Expression, the inaugural limited-edition release from the Johnnie Walker Vault. They then followed that up with the second release in the Vault collection – The Couture Blend – which was launched earlier this month in Singapore.
In an interview with Walker at the launch event, she explained what the process of creating the whiskies was like.
Emma Walker, was tasked with working with Rousteing, 40, to create a unique whisky that would represent not only him, but also mark Johnnie Walker’s first foray into the luxury whisky segment.
It began with her getting to know Rousteing’s “life, his history, how he got to where he is, and his creativity”, and then going to the Johnnie Walker Vault, an extensive liquid library of 500 rare whiskies located at the brand’s famed Princes Street location in Edinburg, Scotland, and pulling together an assortment of whiskies that would form the building blocks and prototypes of what she was trying to achieve.
“He is so glamorous and beautiful, but it was lovely just how approachable, down to Earth and friendly he is,” she said, recalling their first meeting. “I wanted the whiskies to be like that as well, to really be enjoyable.”
Rousteing himself personally designed the exquisite crystal decanters for the collection, drawing inspiration from the iconic Johnnie Walker square bottle while infusing his own signature duality of being minimalist yet opulent.
Seasons of couture
Walker eventually came up with four prototypes, which she likened to the four seasons. “One is a bit fresher and almost like the start of a journey. One is more about that sort of luxury where you just enjoy it wherever you’re at,” she explained.
“One is almost ‘really experimental’, where you explore your history and see what’s coming next. And the last one is kind of like family, your roots, where you come from.
“I took them to Olivier, and he loved them straight away. At the time, we were only going to be making one whisky, but we decided that we should do four instead, one for each season. That really upset some people that we worked with!” she said, laughing.
The Couture Expression comprises four whiskies, each named after a season.
Only 25 sets of The Couture Expression were released, making it some of the most exclusive and rare blends that Johnnie Walker has ever produced.
According to Walker, Rousteing’s favourite of the four whiskies was the Fall blend, which was the “really experimental” one, using a “spicy chocolate malt experiment from Teaninich”, alongside Ben Rinnes and Port Ellen malts.
“This blend was really about him finding and exploring his heritage. Where he was born, his origin story... we’re almost bringing that to life,” she said.
A unique blend
It is no surprise that when it came to creating the Couture Blend, the second whisky in the collaboration with Rousteing, Walker went for a similar approach, using that same experimental chocolate malt Teaninich as the foundation for the blend.
She also included rare malts from Roseisle which have been matured in ex-wine casks, and a special ghost cask from Port Ellen for a unique cloak of smoke.
We got to try the whisky at a private mentoring and blending workshop at Spago, Singapore, and it was a lovely blend that had equal parts umami and spice, with hints of smoke coming through and that lingering richness of the chocolate malt quite prominent throughout the palate.
Walker said that with The Couture Blend, she wanted to celebrate the journey they had been on together.
“It was coming up to Olivier’s 40th birthday as well, so we were bringing all those factors together in this blend,” she recalled.
The Couture Blend was launched in the region at an event in Singapore.
With that in mind, Walker selected 10 whiskies which are older than 40 years, including the aforementioned Roseisle, Teaninich and Port Ellen malts.
She also chose ghost whiskies from the long-closed Port Dundas and Caledonian distilleries, vintage experimental whiskies from the 1980s and 1990s such as Benrinnes, Cragganmore, and Cameronbridge; and a contemporary expression from Cardhu.
“So we’re bringing all these different whiskies together to create an amazing soundscape of flavour. So it was fantastic to be able to do that and just make something that almost encapsulated our whole journey together,” she said.
Only 1,500 individually numbered decanters of the Johnnie Walker Couture Blend are available worldwide, with a total of just 60 bottles available in Malaysia, each retailing at RM10,999.
A different Walk(er)
According to Walker, teaming up with Rousteing really changed her perception of working with whiskies.
“Working with Olivier was fantastic. We usually would look at our inventory straight on, but with this, we had to almost move our point of view so that we could look at it the way Olivier would look at his world,” she said.
“It was like we were building a whisky in the way he does an amazing piece of couture. There’s lots of things that you don’t see in the final piece of art, but that are so integral to how you build that and develop it.
“And so it was really interesting being able to see that synthesis.”
Walker created the Couture Expression and Couture Blend from whiskies that are housed in the Johnnie Walker Vault.
Creating something that is this luxurious also gave Walker a bit of freedom that she usually doesn’t have when working at the other parts of the core range, such as the Black Label, Gold Label, Blue Label and so on.
“Because we are just making 25 bottles (of the Couture Expression), we can look at tiny drops of liquid gold that we have in our inventory that, if we did not do something like this, then we might not have a home for it because we’ve just got so little of it!” she said.
“But it also enables us to be really experimental and think about doing something that is almost out of the norm for Johnnie Walker.
“And then, we can use what we learn with the Johnnie Walker Vault to inform the rest of the Johnnie Walker family for the future as well,” she concluded.
Michael Cheang wonders what a whisky based on his own story would taste like. Follow him on Instagram (@mytipsyturvy) and Facebook (fb.com/mytipsyturvy).
