A Twisted Bottle for The Wire Works Whisky
Client Name: White Peaks Distillery
Brand: Wire Works Whisky
Bottle: Wire Works Whisky
The Company
The Wire Works Single Malt English Whisky from White Peak Distillery is named after the distillery’s location at the former Johnson and Nephew Wire Works on the River Derwent in Derbyshire.
The Aim
The overall project was to create the Wire Works brand, bottle and packaging.
From the start distillery owners Claire & Max Vaughan had a vision that the brand, bottle and packaging had to reflect the Wire Works history and tell the story in a contemporary way. It had to be a sustainable solution that was durable, made in England, sourced locally, post-ready, practical and re-usable, but beautiful – a potential pack for life from the outset – something you would want in your house – to share – to look at – to keep.
Contemporary Creations
Another important element of Claire and Max’s hopes for the bottle was that they never appeared as though they were trying to emulate a classic scotch whisky, as that is precisely what their brand is not. A bespoke bottle was the route White Peaks decided to go with as they found that the majority of off-the-shelf packaging targeted at whiskies still had a traditional, heavy look.
“My main goal was to produce a bottle that I could see being featured in a James Bond film.”- Claire Vaughan
A Collaborative Approach
Claire and Max sought out a creative design agency to create the bottle design, choosing to go with Jenkins Studio. Jenkins Studio read the incredible history of the former Wire Works, gained some good insights from both Claire and Max, listening to their plan around creating a truly inspirational English Whisky brand before getting their heads down to design the packaging.
Technical Expertise
With the design concept and idea firmly in place, refined and all set, the design agency still had a technically challenging bottle to be manufactured. Fortunately, our team at Verallia were there to assist, keeping the integrity of the design fully intact, developing and crafting with our technical expertise of glass as we progressed, bringing the Wire Works story to life within the construct of the bottle.
With good stories there is always a good twist – The twist in this case was getting the intricate Wire Works ‘centrepiece’ detail in the bottle neck to work. This design detail was complicated to introduce in manufacturing the bottle, but our teams expertise always finds a way.
Since the launch of this truly unique creation, Wire Works Whisky has gone on to win numerous awards, including The Spirits Business’ Global World Whisky Masters 2023.
