Today’s luxury is all about a private voyage of discovery. Robyn Lewis considers the tools for today’s tamer jet-set
"PEOPLE ARE LOOKING at luxury in a new way now," claims Charlotte Cornish, managing director of the Future Foundation Group, a strategic research and consultancy firm who recently completed a report entitled the Future of Luxury.
"When we look back to the yuppie era in the 80s we can see that people associate luxury with the traditional products like big, well-known whisky and champagne brands that were linked with affluence," she says.
"Now, however, more people have more disposable income than ever before and can therefore afford better things and that has an effect on the luxury market. The real top end consumers have moved slightly in terms of what they perceive as luxury and are not buying for status symbols but because that product does something for them.
It is now more about quality and authenticity, for example not a big well known whisky what we did with the packaging was to try and get those elements of craftsmanship of 1958 into the design.
So it’s a solid wood box with brass inlay and a bespoke bottle that has the cues of a bygone era. We are keen to always match the packaging with the product so, for example, with our Auchentoshan 1962 we took a totally different approach.
That’s a lighter, more modern spirit from a more urban distillery and the packaging reflects that. There’s a lot of room for innovation and originality even within more traditional luxuries like Whisky."
Part of the reason why the look of top-end products such as these (Auchentoshan 1962 at rrp £1,800 claims to be the most expensive lowland malt ever released) are so important, according to Moore, is that very often they are put on display.
"For the collector market in particular, where the Whisky isn’t necessarily bought to be consumed, the look of the product is important and it must look like the rare, exclusive item that it is."
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