Johnnie Walker The Gold Route hits travel retail

Diageo has announced the release of the second expression in its exclusive travel retail Johnnie Walker Explorers’ Club Collection – The Gold Route.

Johnnie Walker The Gold Route is the second release in the brand’s Explorers’ Club Collection

The expression takes its inspiration from the journeys made by the Walker family through central America through the Andean Mountains and down into Latin America.

Master blender Jim Beveridge describes the blend as delivering an “exotic mix of bananas, mangio and pitaya,” with a taste of “pineapples, guava, passionfruit and raisins, all balanced perfectly by deep charred peaty notes in keeping with the signature smoky Johnnie Walker flavour”.

The release, priced at US$95, follows that of The Spice Road in December last year, which was designed to evoke the spices, fruit and colours of Asia.

It continues the Explorers’ Club Collection – first unveiled at TFWA in Cannes last October – which will culminate this year with the release of The Royal Silk Route at US$159 per litre in May or June.

However the company has hinted that more releases in the range will follow.

“At the very heart of Johnnie Walker lies a bold spirit of adventure which has given rise to a great number of epic journeys,” said Steve White, marketing director of Diageo global travel and Middle East. “Our blends have been inspired by tales of rich travel adventures, in this case, along the Gold Route of the Americas and the Caribbean.”

The Gold Route is available in global travel retail now.