New Bar: Whiskey Life

By Sky Gidge, May 18, 2016

Whisky Life co-owner Simon Ip stares at the 100 or so backlit bottles of whisky lining the wall, dodging my question: “what does Whisky Life add to Shenzhen?”

Wearing a fitted white shirt, black pants and shiny shoes, he looks the picture of a professional bar owner, and the establishment is everything you’d expect from a swanky whisky lounge – gleaming wood, low lights and real flowers.

But I’m worried. The interview is going terribly and I haven’t witnessed Ip in action. Other bar owners had been talking up Whisky Life for weeks, calling it the premiere spot for rare whiskey in Shenzhen. Were they wrong?

Ip’s recommended whisky, Balvenie Doublewood, aged 17 years, is poured over a ball of ice before I take a sip. Okay, I thought, thank God. Ip’s taste in whisky far outshines his ability to give interviews. The Doublewood is sweet, and the finish has notes of vanilla and honey. I drink it slowly, eyeing the RMB150 price on the menu.

Likely costing more than Whisky Life’s eight months of renovation, the bar boasts a selection of whisky focused on aged single malts. They range from RMB60 glasses of 12-year-old Glenfiddich to the Laphroaig, which, aged 32 years, is older than the average Shenzhener and is sold by the bottle for RMB14,800.

The evolving menu lists the usual cocktails – Singapore sling, mojito (both RMB68) and bloody mary (RMB78). The mint julep (RMB68) has a manly kick from a 12-year-old Balvenie whisky.

There are private rooms for high rollers that splash out a minimum RMB3,000 and seat mostly Japanese who make use of the carpeted, cigar friendly spaces about four times a week.

Whisky Life is worlds better than the RMB40-Budweiser bars a 10-minute walk away, but in a city of drinkers that gulp mystery booze and green tea, it may be hard to understand what the venue offers and why it costs so much.