Whisky is scotched

Its members have scaled Mount Everest, walked on the moon and trekked to the farthest reaches of the Earth — but they don’t make Scotch whisky, so Johnnie Walker better stop using their club’s name.

That was the ruling from a Manhattan judge, who has shut the spigot on a line of Johnnie Walker scotch known as Explorers’ Club, finding that parent company Diageo was profiting off an association with the worldrenowned, Manhattanbased club of the same name without permission.

Justice Charles Ramos ordered Diageo to take Explorers’ Club liquor off the shelves of dutyfree shops, where it has racked up $50 million in sales since late 2012.

“It is clear that Diageo’s adoption of the name of the Explorers’ Club was for the purpose of leading the public to believe that it was connected or affiliated with the club,” Ramos’ Aug. 4 decision says.

Johnnie Walker’s airport kiosks across the globe are modeled using the real Explorers Club’s oldworld decor of leather couches, wood paneling and arti facts. The similarities are “striking and unmistakable” the club claimed in its February suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The 120yearold club, headquartered at an East 70th Street mansion, counts famous adventurers as members, from Sir Ernest Shackleton to Buzz Aldrin.

The nonprofit club funds scientific research for adventurers and schoolkids alike. It owns the trademark on The Explorers Club.

While Diageo tried to claim the Walker family “has a longstanding heritage of worldwide travel,” the club countered with a videotape of a salesman in a London dutyfree shop last winter saying that the whisky line was “actually made at the club’s New York headquarters.”

Ramos poohpoohed Diageo’s claim at an April hearing.

“Other than the fact that Johnnie Walker seems to walk with large boots on, I’m not aware of him climbing Mount Everest,” he quipped.

A spokeswoman for Diageo said, “We are extremely disappointed and disagree with the decision of Judge Ramos.”