A day out with Mercedes AMG & Johnnie Walker
- Automobile Featured Spirits
Anushka Manik- 9 minutes read
How do you go about a day out with Johnnie Walker and Mercedes-AMG?
Well, for starters, there’s a lot of adrenaline involved.
A week ago, I headed to the Buddh International Circuit for the immersive Johnnie Walker x Mercedes-AMG experience, not quite knowing that I was about to have one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve had in a very long time.
The day gave us hands-on access to the AMG range across four driving experiences at the BIC. There were track laps on the Formula 1 circuit in the newly launched Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid and AMG GT 63 Pro; an autocross competition in the Mercedes-AMG A 45 S; drift training and a competition in the Mercedes-AMG CLE 53; and drag races under the lights featuring the AMG range.
I picked the track lap, and that decision was followed by approximately 30 seconds of me questioning every life choice that had brought me there.
The moment my driving instructor accelerated to 250 km/h, my heart did a full roller coaster, and not necessarily the kind it should be doing at 25, but definitely the kind I’m unlikely to forget anytime soon. The E 53 Hybrid is, after all, capable of 0–100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds, with 585 hp and 750 Nm of system torque.
And then, the evening changed gears with the AMG Private Night × Johnnie Walker, where JW took over the liquid and hospitality experience with Whisky Experiments featuring Black Label, alongside an exclusive Blue Label tasting.
Now, what exactly is Whisky Experiments, you ask?
It’s Johnnie Walker’s contemporary, flavour-led platform exploring different ways of experiencing Scotch through modern cocktail culture. As someone who isn’t really big on whisky-based cocktails, I was curious to see what they could do differently. Well, quite a bit.
Whisky Experiments brought the versatility of Johnnie Walker Black Label to life through four contemporary serves, each built around a different flavour zone – Coffee, Spicy, Fruity and Fresh.
My favourites included Coorg, a coffee-led concoction pairing Black Label with fruity amaro and whisky barrel-aged coffee, and the Ratnagiri Collins, which brought together Black Label, mango wine, sugarcane, cinnamon and citrus.
But if I had to pick one? Black & Hibiscus would be it. It was fresh, floral and slightly unexpected, paired Black Label with Bianco, hibiscus grenadine and citrus.
The idea behind the experience was simple. Take Scotch beyond the traditional whisky ritual and show just how versatile it can be when you start playing with flavour and format.
There was also an exclusive Johnnie Walker Blue Label tasting, led by Navjot Singh, Beverage Director at Lair, New Delhi. It offered a more refined look at the liquid, its craftsmanship and what makes Blue Label, well, Blue Label. The tasting was complemented by curated Blue Label serves at the bar, including the Blue 75, which gave the whisky a more contemporary cocktail expression.
In conversation with Varun Koorichh, Portfolio Head, International Whiskies at Diageo India, we also got a glimpse into where the luxury spirits category is headed; and it seems that the future isn’t just about what’s in the bottle, but how you experience it.
“India’s premium spirits consumer is becoming increasingly curious, discerning and experience-led, with premiumisation extending beyond the bottle to the serve, flavour, setting and occasion. The country’s evolving cocktail culture is also creating greater openness to experimentation, with whisky increasingly finding a place in contemporary cocktails,” he shares.
And perhaps that was the common thread between the two halves of the evening.
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Whether it was pushing an AMG around the BIC at speeds I’m still processing or discovering whisky through mango wine, hibiscus and barrel-aged coffee, the entire experience was about taking something familiar and making it feel thrillingly new.
Would I go back for another day out with Mercedes-AMG and Johnnie Walker? Without a doubt. Would I stay a little longer next time? A hundred per cent.
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