Beginning of 2011 turns out to be a hot time for Hennessy. This luxury cognac brand celebrates the start of the new year by launching two limited edition products.

It’s become a tradition for Hennessy to present XO limited edition at the beginning of each year since 2007. So, the fourth addition to the XO collection is called Odyssey XO. This is a unique blend created especially for this occasion, not just a classic Hennessy XO taste in a designer bottle. As for the bottle design, it was created by a multi-disciplinary artist and designer Arik Levy who took inspiration from the rock formations which represent one of the basic objects in his work.

Diageo’s Johnnie Walker launched a massive advertising campaign in China revolving around the ‘Keep walking’ motto. The new promotional push dubbed ‘Yulu’ (or ‘Words of a Journey’), the brand’s largest ever effort of this kind on the market, sees 12 Chinese pioneers—including an artist, a real estate businessman, a fashion designer and a blogger—representing different areas of business and art and telling their inspirational life stories.

Inspired by 500 years of vodka making expertise, Absolut has spent the last decade inventing a new vodka. Crafted from hand-selected estate wheat, and blended with soft and naturally filtered water, Absolut Elyx is a true expression of quality. It is a small-batch vodka, produced according to craft techniques, in an authentic 1929 copper rectification still. The result: a handcrafted super premium vodka with an elegant, silky texture.

Have you gained some extra pounds eating during the previous weeks of the festive season? If you are not a super hero or don’t know the secrets of becoming slim even when eating chocolate cakes, you are among those who have. Each New Year’s Eve we give commitments, most of which are revolving around vital things like getting fitter and looking better. Usually, alcohol doesn’t help achieve these goals, but this time the support comes right from famous rum brand Captain Morgan.

This fall, Bombay Sapphire® Gin and Russell and Danny Simmons’ Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation teamed up to create the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series—a nationwide search to discover the next big names in both urban photography and multi-media art. During a series of regional gallery events, twenty artists from these two categories were shortlisted and invited to Miami for a grand finale event during Art Basel. After much deliberation, a jury panel selected Washington, DC photographer Stan Squirewell and Miami artist Jorge Cavalier as the first ever winners of the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series. Both artists will have their work installed at the Rush Arts Gallery in Manhattan from January 13 to 27, 2011.