Hunter Luxury, experts in elegance and precision, have partnered with Brown-Forman and Glenglassaugh Distillery to create a unique wooden pack to launch a historic, highly limited whisky line: The Serpentine Coastal Cask Collection. This collection, born from Glenglassaugh’s reawakening after two decades of silence, pays tribute to the elemental beauty of its coastal home. The stunning, handcrafted cases that house the delicately dappled bottles were designed to express the unique story of these remarkable spirits and the extraordinary place that brought them to life.
The Serpentine Coastal Cask Collection takes its name from the serpentine marble found in the cliffs around the distillery, perched above Sandend Bay on Scotland’s northeastern coast. The collection comprises three extraordinary expressions aged 48, 49, and 51 years, each drawn from a single cask and individually numbered. These whiskies were laid down in the 1970s and remained untouched for decades while the distillery lay dormant. Reawakened in 2008, Glenglassaugh has returned to prominence, and this release marks one of its most significant and evocative moments.
Our team of packaging experts works with the world’s largest brands. Drop us a line at spirits@hunterluxury.com, we’d love to talk through your project brief with you.
Each expression captures the influence of land and sea, shaped over five decades of coastal maturation.
To tell the Glenglassaugh brand story through the medium of packaging, Hunter Luxury’s experts first had to experience it for themselves. Paul Hamilton, Head of Sales & Marketing at Hunter Luxury, visited the distillery in person to take in its unique surroundings, nestled high on the Aberdeenshire coastline.
“The beauty of whisky is that all of this history washes over you after a single sip, as each flavour note explodes on your tongue like a crashing North Sea wave,” explains Hamilton. “It transports you to the white sands of the coast that you can see from the distillery. Our aim was to evoke that same feeling from the packaging itself.
“Initially, we learned more about the serpentine stone from contacts in Portsoy, a neighbouring village, to understand what options were available for the raw material for the pack. We believe this demonstrates our approach to delivering for our customers – when we undertake a project, we go all out to make it special. That sense of immersion — of letting the place shape the outcome—was core to our thinking.”
The final design was an exquisite box crafted from solid oak, sculpted to embody the ebb and flow of the nearby waves. Each panel was CNC carved to achieve a unique wave shape, representing the North Sea and the driftwood that often washes ashore just metres from the distillery. To achieve the desired effect, each oak surface underwent a meticulous hand-finishing process that opened up the grain, drawing out its natural texture and creating a timeworn, coastal appearance. This balance of precision and artistry reflects the natural beauty of Sandend Bay.
Each black box includes a personalised plaque detailing the cask number and the individual it was bottled for. Combined with the unique wood grain patterns, this ensures every single case is one of a kind, capturing the spirit of provenance and personalisation.
“We worked hard to understand the brief and encapsulate the feeling of the coastal Glenglassaugh brand,” said Hamilton. “The packaging evokes feelings of the tides of change experienced over the decades of maturation with the bespoke, wave-like design.”
Our team works with the world’s largest brands. Drop us a line at spirits@hunterluxury.com, we’d love to talk through your project brief with you.
Carving such organic shapes into hardwood presented considerable technical challenges. Several prototypes were discarded before Hunter Luxury developed a solution that could be both hand-finished and scalable. The team achieved the precision required to repeat the curved forms across every case using advanced digital design and CNC carving techniques. These processes were refined through rapid prototyping, with detailed testing of hinge mechanisms, door pulls, and structural alignment to perfect functionality and finish.
Every detail of the case was developed to be bespoke and purpose-built to elevate this rare release. The doors are sealed with a heavyweight medallion made from cast zinc alloy, decorated with enamel in a maritime blue and finished with gold, each tone precisely colour-matched to the other decorative elements. The doors open on specially manufactured electroplated brass hinges, designed for strength and visual continuity.
The black exterior is decorated with fine gold-painted lettering to display the whisky’s age. To overcome the difficulty of achieving crisp graphics on wood, each letterform was laser-engraved and filled with resin before painting, ensuring a sharp, flawless definition on the natural grain. A laser-engraved, colour-matched metal plaque showcases the cask number and individual customer details.
Inside, the bottle is dramatically presented on a central glorifier, as if cradled within the carved cliffs of the Aberdeenshire coast. This sculptural centrepiece was created from 26 individual slats of CNC-carved white oak, layered and fused to form a naturalistic alcove that carries the wave motif into the heart of the case. A bespoke bottleneck fitment was seamlessly integrated into the slat structure, providing both support and visual continuity.
Beneath the glorifier, a concealed press-to-release drawer mechanism slides open with engineered precision to reveal a custom 20-page presentation booklet. The booklets, cloth-bound and printed on premium European stock, were individually personalised to reflect the distinct character of each cask, becoming a keepsake as valuable as the liquid itself.
The case interior is lined with a bespoke woven fibre material, backed with a sumptuous faux suede that brings warmth and tactility to the experience. This same combination of materials was used to form a soft-touch handle, mounted with minimal brass brackets. Every element, from hinges to suede to enamel, was colour-matched across the full design, uniting form and function in a singular vision.
Not only that, but it also demonstrates the Hunter Luxury approach to packaging design – no detail is too small, and each one is every bit as important as the last.
“Every packaging project is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us,” concludes Hamilton. “Every brand is unique, and no two packaging projects are the same. We’re proud to keep raising the bar for our customers – their success is its own reward.”
Our team works with the world’s largest brands. Drop us a line at spirits@hunterluxury.com, we’d love to talk through your project brief with you.
Harpenden Hall,
Southdown Road,
Harpenden,
Herts,
UK,
AL5 1TE
