In whisky packaging, luxurious often means heavy—suppose thick bottles with hefty stoppers that double as trophies on a shelf. Johnnie Walker desires to upend that considering and embrace the notion that lithe is opulent. Working example: The brand new Johnnie Walker Blue Label Extremely bottle, at 6.3 oz. (180g), was simply awarded the Guinness World File for lightest 700 ml bottle. The stopper, fabricated from hollowed-out aluminum, provides roughly 2.5 oz., for a complete weight of 8.8 oz.
In different luxurious sectors—like watches and supercars—much less has at all times meant extra. The lighter, the rarer. However spirits have been totally different. For followers of Blue Label’s well-known sq. 1.8-pound (850g) bottle, a featherweight substitute is likely to be a little bit of a tradition shock. Going from one thing as heavy as a paperweight to the Extremely, a glass bottle as gentle as six pencils, might take a minute to get used to.
How the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Extremely Bottle Was Created
The Extremely bottle is the results of a five-year quest by Johnnie Walker’s proprietor, Diageo, to search out probably the most sustainable and lightest packaging attainable whereas retaining the luxurious aura of the franchise and its particular mix of whiskies, which embody ultra-rare Oban, Brora, Royal Lochnagar, and a number of other ghost distilleries. That process fell to Diageo’s international design director Jeremy Lindley.
Power and security have been Lindley’s priorities, however perform wanted to comply with kind. After studying that the naturally strongest form for glass is the teardrop—the form it naturally assumes when liquid—Lindley and his workforce made a teardrop with sq. sides, in a nod to the basic Johnnie Walker silhouette.
Prototypes have been examined at progressively lighter weights till, in Lindley’s phrases, “it breaks, and then you definately go one notch heavier.” The ultimate Extremely bottle resists warmth, influence, and even hammer strikes, assembly the identical security requirements as its 1.8-pound predecessor.
Johnnie Walker launched 888 bottles of Extremely to the North American market on Might 1st, every priced at $1,250. That features a bamboo stand, as a result of the bottle is just too elegant (learn: round-bottomed) to face by itself.
Count on to See Lightweighting Throughout Extra Liquor Manufacturers
Diageo’s experimented with sustainable packaging earlier than—a 90% paper bottle for its Johnnie Walker Black in 2024— however Extremely’s new bottle is the tip of the spear for glass—particularly for corporations wishing to promote in Europe. The European Union’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) legal guidelines will quickly dictate not solely what packaging will get offered, but in addition how sustainable it needs to be. So was Diageo’s mission merely a head begin on the PPWR’s 2030 deadline?
“You may say it is useful that we’re getting forward of the curve with all of the laws. However we’d began [Ultra] earlier than [PPWR rules] have been revealed,” says Lindley, including that it’s vital for Diageo to prioritize as a result of it’s a “important change for [all our liquor categories] to be enthusiastic about minimal attainable packaging weight.” In a bid to assist, Diageo is providing the patent royalty-free, so any competitor can replicate the Extremely bottle.
When will lighter bottles begin rolling out en masse? “There are advanced manufacturing and provide chain processes—we’ve to make check molds, test security,” says Lindley. “We’re in all probability about 12 months from these first merchandise hitting the market because of the lightweighting program.”
