- Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra is the result of five years of experimenting and pushes the boundaries of luxury, craft and innovation
- The world’s lightest 70cl Scotch whisky glass bottle was unveiled at London Design Festival, where Johnnie Walker Blue Label is a Major Partner
Johnnie Walker, the world’s number one Scotch whisky1 has today unveiled a limited edition first-of-its kind, boundary-breaking innovation. Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra is the brand’s lightest 70cl Scotch whisky glass bottle to date and to the best of the brand’s knowledge and research, the world’s lightest 70cl Scotch whisky glass bottle2 . The design takes bold strides and dares to experiment with a recognised paradigm of luxury.
Five years ago, Johnnie Walker set out with a specific ambition; to move the spirits industry forward. Having noticed that many luxury categories were heading in a new direction – ‘delicate’, rather than ‘heavy’ – the brand sought to experiment with one of its most luxury whiskies. Aiming to push the boundaries of lightweighting glass, all in the name of progress.
At just 180g without the closure, the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra bottle has been created by adopting a test-and-learn model, designing and exploring without limitation and imagining what the future of lightweight luxury packaging could bring. Along with external glass makers, the brand rethought all aspects of how the bottle is designed, made and transported: from hand-blowing the glass, to using a teardrop shape which, for the first time ever, meant reforming the iconic Johnnie Walker square bottle.
The result is an industry-first that, as well as achieving exquisite beauty, showcases what luxury, lighter-weight, lower-carbon bottles of the future could look like. As part of the Diageo Spirit of Progress action plan, Johnnie Walker aims to reduce the weight of glass used in its packaging; an ambition that is aimed at reducing the amount of carbon emissions associated with packaging.3
Whilst the technology is not yet available to launch bottles of this weight at scale, permanently, the knowledge Johnnie Walker has garnered is already being applied to lightweighting projects across the Diageo portfolio. In the course of its five years of research, the brand has been granted a UK patent4 and to encourage further progress in the industry – and in a first for Diageo – a license to the patent will be offered on a royalty-free basis to anyone in the world who wishes to share in these discoveries.
A new Johnnie Walker Blue Label expression was blended for this exquisite bottle by Dr. Emma Walker, the Johnnie Walker Master Blender. For this release, Dr. Emma Walker sought out liquids from distilleries such as Oban, Brora and Royal Lochnagar, as well as a variety of ‘ghost whiskies’, first made in distilleries that have since closed.
In celebration of this technological breakthrough only 888 bottles will be ever produced. A limited number of these limited-edition bottles will be released for sale in 2025 in selected markets worldwide (RRP £1000).
The bottle will be unveiled at London Design Festival on Saturday 14th September. Johnnie Walker is a Major Partner of the festival and has partnered with designers Marshmallow Laser Feast to create a Landmark Project installation at the Old Selfridges Hotel in Marylebone, celebrating the design elements of Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra.
Johnnie Walker Global Brand Director, Jennifer English said, “Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra is a truly progressive stride forward for Johnnie Walker, Diageo and the industry. We didn’t know what we were going to be able to achieve when we set out to push the boundaries of luxury, and the result is something that many said would not be possible.
This new, lightweight bottle is a thing of exquisite beauty; but more importantly, it demonstrates what is possible when it comes to lightweighting glass. We will continue applying these learnings across our range, taking more progressive strides as we look to the future of Scotch.”
Global Design Director at Diageo, Jeremy Lindley who led the design project, said, “Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra was born out of an ideation session looking at the future of luxury. With other categories moving towards lightweight – such as eyewear and high-performance cycling – we questioned whether luxury spirits could follow suit.
“We took our vision to a team of expert glassmakers and throughout a five year test-and-learn process slowly discovered how to create elegant, lightweight glass. The technical challenges that lightweighting presents led us to incorporate various design and production specifications that we could not have envisaged at the start of our journey; from the requirement of a tear drop shape which we have moulded to still mimic the iconic square form of Johnnie Walker bottles, to the addition of a protective cage to allow for a round base, and the hand-making and filling of each individual bottle to avoid damages in production.
“Rather than hold this new knowledge close to our chest, we’re excited to be offering a royalty-free licence to our granted UK patent to the world. We hope that our discoveries will have a positive impact within the wider industry and help discover new possibilities for lighter, lower carbon packaging alternatives.”
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1IWSR 2023.
2To verify and obtain more information, please contact us at press@diageo.com. The previously claimed ‘lightest weight Scotch whisky bottle’ was launched by a UK retailer and weighed around 298 grams.
3Actual savings would be project and product dependent, but in general, independent studies show that, all else equal, for every gramme of glass reduced that means over half a gramme less carbon emissions in production.
– Source: British Glass UK glass manufacturing sector decarbonisation roadmap to 2050 page 6.
4Diageo has submitted filings to have its granted UK Patent No. GB2616831 B endorsed as licensable of right on the UKIPO patent register, and interested parties are invited to request a standard royalty free, non-exclusive licence from Diageo.