If you hadn’t already heard, there’s a new whisky brand in town… or should that be ‘back in town’? If, like me, you are a complete history buff who loves nothing more than to learn something new every day, then you will enjoy the story that Wolfburn can tell you about themselves on their website, but let’s just point out that the last time Wolfburn produced whisky in Thurso, these things were happening:

- Queen Victoria was still on the throne.
- Alfred Nobel had just invented Dynamite.
- Big Ben had just struck its first chime.
- Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States of America.
- Victor Hugo had just published Les Miserables.
- There was a reward of £8000 for Ned Kelly – Dead or Alive.
- Jules Verne was journeying to the centre of the earth.

There was a lot going on, and this just shows how long the distillery has been closed for. Today, however, Wolfburn is a brand that is coming back from the dead distilleries. After 150 years of neglect, they found a “barely discernible pile of stones (in Thurso), but one thing remained from the yesteryears of Wolfburn distillery: the water. The cold, clear waters that fed the mash tun and stills, all those years ago, were still flowing just as they always had, and if the Wolf Burn was still there, then the whisky could be, too.”

However, “No bottles or even memories of the original Wolfburn whisky remain from when the distillery last operated,” so the whole project, even down to the production of the whisky, would be started from scratch.

Making the decision to bring Wolfburn back to life, the company’s massive task began. When their list of ‘jobs to be done’ began to shorten and they finally reached the fun stage of preparing the packaging that would house their relaunched whiskies, they came to us at Progress Packaging. We had to help bring their packaging to life in a way that supported the whole rebirth, and we absolutely love the final result.

These crash lock based cartons had to be of high quality to support such a brand. They were flood-printed black, matt laminated and then gloss UV spot varnished and foil-blocked gold to two designs (EU versions and USA versions). We also produced the labels, digitally printing onto uncoated stock paper. These, too, were matt varnished, as well as being gold foil-blocked over four designs.

So, maybe in years to come, there will be pages and pages of history about Wolfburn in 2016. The year they came back into the whisky market with a bang. The year every member of staff at Progress Packaging suddenly decided to become a whisky connoisseur in their spare time. The year it became socially acceptable to admit to liking Justin Beiber’s new album without having tomatoes thrown at you in the street. Yes, we went there. Is it too late now to say sorry?