When it comes to persuading the Chinese to part with their money, the name of the game is exclusivity: limited editions, bespoke packaging, personalised inscriptions – rarity commands a premium in China like nowhere else on earth.
So the Chinese uber-rich will be delighted to hear that the richest among them will soon be able to command the ultimate in personalised luxury: a bespoke blend of Scotland’s finest whiskies, delivered by a man in a tartan tie in Diageo’s new Johnnie Walker House in Shanghai – the first such shrine ever built outside Scotland (pictured).
With its floors made of oak casks and walls of barley and peat, the Shanghai House of Walker is part shop, part museum — and all sophistication. It will open later this month, with the stated aim of creating a new class of Chinese whisky connoisseurs (and boosting China to number one position as Johnnie Walker’s biggest global market, within five years).