Priced at around $100 per bottle, Jack Daniel’s American Single Malt Whisky is made from 100% malted barley. After distillation, the spirit is passed through Jack Daniel’s traditional charcoal mellowing process before being matured in new American oak barrels for a minimum of four years. The cask-proof 45% abv whiskey is then finished for an additional two years in Spanish oloroso sherry casks.
When the second-bestselling spirit in travel retail announces a launch as big as this, you can guarantee buyers will sit up and take notice. Given the shortage of aged malts currently, they will also welcome Diageo Global Travel’s recent launch of Elusive Expressions: eight cask-strength single malt whiskies which all features some very colourful, fantasy-inspired label illustrations of mythical beasts created by illustrator Ken Taylor and digital artist Kevin Tong.
The latest edition of the annual Diageo Special Releases series, Elusive Expressions include whiskies from Glen Ord, Mortlach, Talisker, Cameronbridge, Oban, Clynelish, Lagavulin and Cardhu. Initially available in hubs such as Changi, Taipei, Delhi and Dubai before a wider roll out in the US and South Korea, the Elusive Expressions feature QR codes on the bottle labels which travellers can access on their smartphones.
Consumers are taken on an online tour of the distilleries in the collection – they can learn more about the stories behind the mythical beasts in the illustrations and dip into a cocktail book with recipes for every whisky. The humble QR code has been around since the 1990s but is now at the forefront of a lot of in-store promotional activity in GTR as brand owners and their retail partners strive to make the shopping experience a more fun, interactive one.
