Judge's comments:

Yeah buoy! An example of packaging as product design. Meticulously crafted with no exceptions made. Strong shape, strong colour, with all the finishings. The pinnacle of boutique.

Description:

Bluff. Rugged and remote, famous for oysters and hardy souls at the ass end of the country. With a salt-blasted history and a future hard to forecast, Bluff has a spirit like no other - one that needed to be bottled.

A bespoke distillery in the abandoned freezing works building was built.
Hannah, (the copper still), is cleverly cooled by sea water, a process that saves 70% of the water normally needed to produce a bottle of premium Gin.

The challenge was to package the product in a way that matches the unique quality of what Bluff produces. Make the bottle something locals are proud of, something true, something you can’t throw away. (Also, make it taste very good with half a dozen bluffies).

Finding inspiration for a bottle to hold the spirit of Bluff came from its rich history. There are many tales of local fishermen cutting loose the glass buoys from the nets of illegal Japanese fishing boats in a previous era. These buoys once littered the nooks of the Foveaux strait and can still be found around Bluff. Their rugged utilitarian beauty is a perfect expression of Bluff.

Making a unique, bespoke bottle is not easy. There isn’t enough room in this section of copy to relate the pain we went through. But suffice to say, we eventually found a passionate French bottle manufacturer and an innovative factory in China to take it on. It took a year and many prototypes to hit the right shape, detail and shade of ‘hells-gate’ green – the name given to the beginning of the Foveaux Strait as you leave Bluff. It’s fair to say that the process of making this product has reflected the graft and grit so synonymous with the place it comes from. Perfect really.