Whisky fans, keep walking

A copper-plated compass on the floor of the entrance to the Johnnie Walker House reads "Keep Walking" after the famous whisky brand's slogan. But the Johnnie Walker House is not a bar. It prides itself as Beijing's first luxury whisky club, although inside, it looks more like a villain's lair.

Officially open to the public since January 16, the Johnnie Walker House on Tiananmen Dongdajie, Dongcheng district, is the place you'd expect to find a cunning mastermind from a Bond film plotting his or her next move.

The club's underground floors feel more conspiratorial the further down you go. The club's three main rooms are a nod to old money, conjuring the image of top hats and men plotting world domination. Each clink of glasses in the Striding Man Room, the club's main drinking den, could be over a maniacal plot. The Blending Room, buried deepest of all, contains a display cabinet of special Scottish single malts that looks like it could trigger a revolving wall into the decaying basement of what used to be the US embassy.

The club's biggest conspiracy however appears to be that it has little to do with whisky after all. Unlike every other place that serves whisky in Beijing, managers of the Johnnie Walker House claim it's not the whisky that matters here. Rather, it's the promise of luxury.

Qu Baojun, 40, the club's operations manager, says the Johnnie Walker House is designed to imitate the success of its Shanghai branch by bringing luxury culture to Beijing's wealthiest elites.

But Qu says the club has no relation to the enjoyment of good whisky.

"If you want to acquire a taste for whisky, this isn't the place to come," he says. "Our club is about the experience of a luxury brand. There are plenty of other places where you can experiment in Beijing."

Membership at the club starts with a minimum purchase of 50,000 yuan ($8,043) from a selection of bottles, ranging from the Gold Label at 410 yuan per bottle to the Blue Label at 1,200 yuan a bottle.

The club reserves bottles for members in plush compartments of the Distillery Room, which holds the Diamond Jubilee, the club's highest priced bottle at 1.5 million yuan.

Yan Jici, 26, the club's bar manager, says he believes many who have frequented the club so far do not know anything about whisky. He says they are interested only in Johnnie Walker as a status symbol.

"Businesspeople in their early-30s to 40s tend to be the most pretentious whisky drinkers. They're the kind who really believes anything expensive amounts to social status," Yan says.

Yan adds that the club prides itself on steering Beijing towards luxury culture, and often attracts those who like to fake their way into sounding like connoisseurs.

"I hear a lot of newcomers say they like Johnnie Walker's smoky whisky best. You can bet they say that because the smoky whisky has the strongest flavor. They assume the stronger the whisky, the better it must be," he says.

With so much focus placed on making the club Beijing's new luxury destination for the super-rich, it's not yet clear how the Johnnie Walker House wants to attract its core members.

On the one hand, the club's appeal is exclusivity. And yet, the club has made itself open to the public. The club's biggest challenge according to Qu is "keeping a balance between those who come to the club as potential members and the general public who comes out of interest."

Qu points out that the club does not run for profit, but rather as a brand embassy.

He says, "We don't want to be so exclusive so as to attract no one. However, the club does not take an interest in the public's taste."

The club has little to angst over. As a living advertisement for the Johnnie Walker brand, the place needs few moneyed patrons to keep up appearances.

If the club really does hide a reclusive mastermind in its depths, his ploy is certainly a genius one. Belonging to an invisible club may seem like a privilege for the rich, but it also spares real whisky lovers their unbearable blather. Big spenders, like whisky connoisseurs, may want to keep walking their separate ways.