Suntory Whisky

Suntory asked us to create special gift sets for their 18- and 25-year-old Yamazaki single malts. It makes us the first international company to collaborate with Japan’s oldest whisky distillery.

The design of both gift sets is intended to act as an honest material expression of the Suntory process. The leather gift bag for the 18-year-old – a limited edition of 500 bottles – is fashioned from soft calfskin and fitted with an oak closure. The pattern on the outside is a laser-cut scan of the interior of one of Suntory’s oak barrels.

The oak casket for the 25-year-old, like the whisky it contains, is a little more complex. Its three compartments represent the three rivers beside which the distillery sits. Copper is used for the fixings, custom-made hinges and magnetic closure, and the bottle’s display niche is backed by a leather panel decorated with 25 lines of stitching – one for each year of the whisky’s age.

A soft leather pocket holds information about the whisky, and the box also includes a set of Yamazaki-branded coasters, made from oak-tanned sole leather. We selected a richly hued bridle leather, also tanned with oak, for the exterior. Just 100 of these exclusive collector’s items were produced.