A new entrant to the UK’s booming gin market, Shivering Mountain launched this spring with two references: a premium dry gin and a pink gin. The brand’s stand-out packaging takes its cues from the “shivering mountain” in the distillery’s Peak District home.
Recently launched gin brand Shivering Mountain called on UK-based firm The Allotment for its branding and packaging concept. Inspiration for the bottle design came from Mam Tor, a Peak District mountain known locally as the Shivering Mountain due to geological phenomena that means the mountain moves each year, together with the concept of “ginology”. Similar to the idea of terroir for a wine, the term coined by the brand describes how the Peak District’s micro climate and geology create unique ecosystems where the fruit and flowers used in the brand’s gins thrive.
The bespoke weighted bottle (Allied Glass) features a wide base and tapered top with a long, slender neck. Chamfers around the body give the impression that the mountain in its base “shivers” when the bottle is turned. Mam Tor’s co-ordinates on the bottom of the bottle are engraved in the mold, while the brand logo is embossed on the facing.
The brand highlights that the process of bringing the mountain to life in the bottle involved some trial and error. “We had originally planned for the “mountains” to be larger, but we had to reduce the height three times – by around 10mm in total – to get to the bottle we have today,” Nick Malaczynski, Founder of Shivering Mountain Distillery, tells Luxe Packaging Insight. “Uneven thickness meant the first few attempts didn’t pass quality control as they were too fragile,” he explains. The bottles are sprayed either a graded blue or pink depending on the reference.
The label with copper foil – a nod to the copper that was once mined in the Peak District – has been elevated to the neck of the bottle to help the gin stand out on store shelves. The logotype continues the brand’s geological theme, with an integrated fault line and “shiver effect”.
Malaczynski says the bottle’s wooden stopper (Bostocap) will soon be replaced with a metal alternative from the same supplier for a more premium, weighted feel. And as for secondary packaging, a canister with copper foiling is in the works.
Shivering Mountain’s Dry Gin has a London Dry profile, combining juniper and citrus with sloes and bilberries, while the Pink Gin blends pink grapefruit and orange with a dry gin base.
According to Malaczynski, the demand for the gins since they launched this spring are such that the company predicts that it will sell four to five times its initial 20,000 bottle run within the first year.
Shivering Mountain is working on expanding its range, with two new products in the pipeline for next year. “We aim to use local suppliers and botanicals when possible,” Malaczynski highlights. The new gins will incorporate the flowers and berries of all the botanicals used by the brand: bilberry and sloe flowers in the spring, for example, and sloe and bilberries in the autumn.
BottleAllied Glass
StopperBostocap
DesignThe Allotment
