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SHAME COLOUR APPEARS FREQUENTLY ON SPIRIT LABELS, PATRICK LECLEZIO FINDS. IN THE JOHNNIE WALKER WHISKY PORTFOLIO ALONE THERE IS RED, BLACK, BLUE, GREEN AND GOLD. HE TAKES AN UNCOMPLICATED BLACK AND WHITE VIEW OF THE TOPIC.
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e live in world that has become so complex, so overwhelming and time-intensive, that I’ve made it a priority to strive for simplicity in my life, although with all the distractions and confusion out there I need to regularly remind myself about it. And I’m not alone, by far. Simple logic, simple pleasures, finding the essence of things – these are universally appealing ambitions, capable of explosive impact. Simplicity offers clarity, and clarity can be priceless. I spend a lot of time thinking about and sampling booze, probably too much time (and the jury’s out on whether it’s helping me achieve any clarity), so it surprised me recently in light of this priority to simplify, to make an observation that had previously eluded me. There’s a multitude of simplicity in the naming of liquor brands, specifically the use of black or white. Their monochromatic simplicity aside, these are colours that serve as basic, widely understood symbols, conveying at their core powerful inferences: white as purity, innocence, goodness, and black as elegance, luxury, power, mystery, and at its darker end, degrees of malevolence. Bruichladdich Black Art, the maverick Islay whisky, playfully taps into this vein to great effect, exuding an enigmatic, slightly dangerous mystery – perfectly evoking the unusualness of the product itself, with its luscious, layered, almost magical notes. Was it made in a still or a cauldron? On a windswept Western
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Hebridean island in Scotland or with myth and magic in Middle Earth? The verdict is still not in, as far as I’m concerned. One of my favourite whiskeys is Bushmills Black Bush. I love the rich, fruity, velvety flavour, especially in the context of its not-taking-the-mickey price tag. The name signals the luxury of the liquid, no doubt, but it supports my hypothesis even further – and in this instance, a rare case indeed, it’s the people or the fans who can take the credit. This whiskey actually started out with a distinctly non-simple and rather cumbersome designation: “Old Bushmills Special Old Liqueur Whiskey”, but given its identifiably dark colouring, due to maturation largely in Oloroso sherry casks, and its black label, patrons started calling for it in more basic terms: “Barman, I’ll have the Black Bush please” – with the “Bush” being a contraction of Bushmills. Before long the popular name was formally adopted. A whiskey of the people, by the people, or as close to it as you’ll get – although the Scotch whisky Black & White has a similar story* (I kid you not), being previously named “House of Commons”. The white-is-good-black-is-evil axis is turned on its head by Johnnie Walker’s White Walker whisky, a commemoration of the massively popular Game of Thrones universe, and its nefarious, implacable arch-villains. Spoiler alert: they didn’t “keep walking”, being eventually eliminated in one fell swoop, and
