A Bespoke Solution for a Super Premium Malt

“Croxsons will continue to be our go-to supplier for low-volume, high quality releases.”

Croxsons recently completed a bespoke packaging project for Balblair Distillery’s rare 25-year-old single malt whisky.

Now one of the oldest working distilleries in the Scottish Highlands, some may have mistakenly thought that Balblair was wedded to their ‘vintage-only’ house style. However, this was a chance to move forwards into a new statement collection – still faithfully representing Balblair’s heritage, but with a more modern design.

This was a bespoke bottle with a very low production run. What made it even more unique was the fact that rare, limited edition bottles like this are generally not an option for brand owners. That is, unless they come to Croxsons. We can interpret a design blueprint into a bottle which is not only possible to make, but which also reflects the quality within.

Echoing the super-premium nature of the spirit, the design took cues from Balblair’s core range, with a flared finish, rounded shoulders, shaped eyebrow on the front and brand logo ‘z-rod’ emboss on the back.

The bottle exudes elegance and opulence with an increase in height and a subtle taper added to the body; and a thick base was introduced to indicate the premium quality.

Croxsons produced 5,000 units in one size and 2,000 in another, which are incredibly small numbers, even for such a premium product.

Fiona King, Balblair’s global marketing manager – malts, said: “We chose Croxsons as they were able to work with our small volume releases. They are also able to source and offer components that are not always available to general trade, which opens up the possibilities in our spirit packaging.

“Through regular communication and a detailed understanding our requirements, a bottle has been produced that delivers against the design brief and is technically sound in strength and capacity. We were able to sign off on the final design after the first pilot run, which ensured we launched on time. Croxsons will continue to be our go-to supplier when we have new packaging developments, particularly for low volume, high quality releases.”

We always aim to match world class manufacturing to incredible designs to create a bottle that is worthy of the nature and stature of the brand – so when it comes to rare releases for customers who share our mindset, there is no better option than bespoke.