During art month, we celebrate artists who share their passion for art in all shapes and forms. Johnnie Walker Blue Label's latest limited-edition gift box, created in partnership with glassmaker Riedel and urban artist Taxa, is a true celebration of an artist's craft, focusing on touch, taste and sight to capture the unique and complex flavours of the world’s number one Scotch Whisky.

Photo: Johnnie Walker

The bottle comes with two whisky glasses specially designed by glassmaker Riedel to offer the whisky drinker two distinct tasting experiences, one focusing on the elegant and sweet floral bouquet, and the second focusing on the bold richness filled with spice and dark chocolate aromas.

The full set is encased in a gift-box featuring urban artist Taxa's masterpiece created especially for the occasion, which you can also find in the shape of a mural on Aberdeen Street, across from PMQ from 24 May until 24 June. We speak to Taxa about his inspiration behind his masterpiece.

Photo: Johnnie Walker

What words/emotions came to you at the first sip of Johnnie Walker Blue Label?  

I felt like I was taking a journey by tasting the different aromas and flavours. And the aftertaste kept the journey long!

The custom-made art piece centres around the ocean and the heart, can you tell us what inspired that theme?  

My two key messages for this piece were to give meaning and feeling to the “best gift” and “unrivalled depth of flavour”. When I gift presents to an important person, I would think about the person and send a gift with the thoughts from my heart.

The human heart is deep and when I think about that special person, it can reach to its deepest part. The ocean is also like the human heart, it is deep, it keeps changing shapes like emotions, and no waves are alike, just like human characters.  So I came up with this idea.

Heart and ocean can be a metaphor for expressing “Depth”.

Photo: Taxa

You deconstructed the whisky and used layered visuals to represent each part, from the cask to the flavours, can you walk us through it?  

It includes some plant layers to show depth of flavour and aroma. I didn’t want to draw specific plants to keep it artistic.

I added some flowers to also show depth of flavour and aroma. It is also not a specific flower, it can represent some ingredients that have flowers such as chocolate, hazelnut and ginger. Also, visually, a flower is a great icon to express aroma and fragrance.

On the left side, I added conceptual smoke to show the aroma/ smoky flavour. You will also see the honey pattern and bees to depict the flavour of honey and I added a wooden pattern to express the cask and also sandal wood aroma/flavour.

What about Johnnie Walker and Riedel made you want to collaborate with them? What is something you all share?  

The two brands have long histories and have been creating top quality products for a very long time. As an artist, I’d also like to create some art that people can enjoy for long time.