When you think about the Balvenies and Lagavulins of the world, or maybe the Laphroaigs or the GLENS—’fiddich, ‘livett, scotia, ‘dronach, and ‘morangie, naturally—these aren’t brands that have to wow you while you’re perusing Scotch and whiskey at your local bottle shop. They need to communicate things like provenance and heritage, all of that old-world stuff that typically reads SCOTCH and leather armchairs. Think lots and lots of little type, barely legible, minus the oversized number on every bottle denoting how long it was aged.
And in many ways, those brands can get away with this. They may have a beautiful bottle silhouette here and there, but for the most part, they don’t have to worry about those things when they’re making an appeal to hardcore whisky fans and the Ron Swanson’s of the world.
