An object of desire

The Asian Age.  | Ketan Swami

Life, Food

It’s not just the spirit but often the bottle that proves to be the highlight.

The Louis XIII Black Pearl Cognac

Packaging is an effective part of a brand’s marketing strategy. And with liquor, sometimes the bottle that holds it can be as much a reason to buy it as the drink contained within. The bottle itself can even become a collectors’ item. There are bottles that are rare, luxurious, artistically beautiful, or otherwise interesting — and that means that they’re some of the most sought-after liquor bottles that money can buy.

It’s amazing that we have come from storing liquids in a leather pouch in our early days to creating masterpieces of art that demand a space on the shelf. Subsequently, there is a vast makeover and how today’s world treats alcoholic beverage bottles.  

For the established brands, it’s a great way to gain publicity and utilise limited edition marketing to either create true collector’s items or simply justify a higher price point. For most of the newer brands it’s a bit of tradeoff.

As it’s not easy getting into the liquor business, they create a bottle that becomes a novelty. This helps generate buzz and get consumers to try their product. Businesses under these segments market their products as limited edition with a killer price tag, which attracts buyers to shell out their wealth and make them feel one in a million.

From a marketing perspective, do these payoffs or is their creation more of a celebration expense? Let’s find out…

The Ladoga Imperial Collection

Louis XIII Black Pearl Cognac: Louis XIII Cognac is at the top of high-end cognacs. It’s a unique and rare blend of liquor, aged between 40 to 100 plus years, in the Grande Champagne region of France. Though normally the brand goes for around $2,000 per bottle, this limited edition “Black Pearl” is listed for four times that amount. The bottle is  a uniquely coloured Baccarat crystal that reflects and refracts light like no other bottle before.

Macallan Crystal Decanter: This one kind of bottle is not only a work of craftsmanship but  also holds the oldest and rarest Macallan single malt ever bottled. It sold at Sotheby’s for a whopping $460,000 in 2010, making it the most expensive bottle of whiskey ever sold.

Ladoga Imperial Collection: The premium vodka brands are getting into the upmarket bottling row as well. Ladoga created a classy Venice glass decanter for their Imperial collection. The decanter is detailed with 24-karat gold trim and inspired by Faberge eggs; when opened, the “egg” reveals the bottle and four cleverly mounted shot glasses within. The decanters come in a variety of colors, each suitable as a lovely collectors’ piece for any vodka fanatic.

La Collection Hand-Blown Glass Bottles: This Armenian brand takes its bottle designs very seriously. La Collection features several hand-blown glass bottles representing a variety of animals, including a bull, a horse, and an elephant, plus a few bottles shaped like other objects, like guns, a sword (with sheath), a menorah, and a ladies’ dress shoe. It’s a brand worth collecting just for the unique glasswork alone.

Even technology has a part to play. Medea Vodka displays a message on a bottle! The LED display can remember up to six messages as long as 255 characters each. That’s right: each message contains more info than a tweet on Twitter! The batteries last about a year as per the website.

Personally, I will rather stick to my humble, Dettol shaped Old Monk bottle. So what’s your favourite bottle?

Ketan Swami is the food and beverage manager at Mars Hospitalitty

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