Penelope Bourbon’s new Estate Collection showcases aged 10–11-year expressions paired with an elegant visual identity featuring a peony-in-shield emblem. From the meticulously crafted Founder’s Reserve to jewel-toned Single Barrel and Private Select releases, the collection unites design, heritage, and innovation to mark a refined new chapter for the brand.
Penelope Bourbon’s evolution over the past several years has been marked by a deliberate climb toward refinement, craftsmanship, and an unmistakable sense of identity. With each release, the brand has demonstrated an increasing commitment not only to exceptional whiskey making, but also to creating an aesthetic and emotional world that reflects the character of the liquid inside. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Estate Collection, a series that represents the brand’s most mature and meticulously curated expressions to date. With whiskey aged between ten and eleven years, the collection stands as a testament to time, patience, and an unwavering fidelity to craft.
To announce such an ambitious series, Penelope Bourbon needed a visual system that matched the prestige of the liquid. For this, the brand turned to Watermark Design, a studio renowned for elevating spirits packaging through symbols, structure, and storytelling. The collaboration between Penelope and Watermark has resulted in a portfolio that doesn’t merely present whiskey—it enshrines it. The Estate Collection, in particular, emerges from this partnership as a masterclass in how design can deepen the meaning behind an already exceptional product.
Central to the collection is its emblem: a peony set within a shield. This is not an arbitrary flourish but a carefully chosen symbol combining refined beauty with resolute strength. The peony’s delicate petals and the shield’s stately form create a duality that mirrors Penelope’s philosophy—elegance grounded in substance, softness supported by structure. This emblem acts as a mark of belonging, appearing across the collection as a unifying icon. In an overly saturated world of whiskey branding, where marketing often leans on heritage clichés, Penelope’s peony-in-shield is distinctly modern yet timeless. It becomes a visual anchor that signals the Estate Collection’s elevated position within the broader Penelope portfolio.
The inaugural release under this banner, Founder’s Reserve, instantly set a high bar. Aged liquid can only communicate so much on its own; its story is completed through touch, sight, and the rituals of opening and pouring. The packaging for Founder’s Reserve was designed to honor this tactile narrative. The whiskey arrives in custom glass, a vessel created specifically for the collection, lending exclusivity from the first glance. Nestled within a bespoke box, the bottle feels more like an artifact than a consumable product—something to present, display, and preserve.
One of the most striking details of the Founder’s Reserve packaging is the Penelope brandmark cast in metal and inset into the glass. This choice is significant, offering a sense of permanence that mirrors the longevity of the aged whiskey inside. Metal embedded in glass is not merely decorative; it suggests legacy, a nod to the idea that great whiskey, like great craftsmanship, is meant to endure. Alongside this, the brand’s iconic bikini label—long a signature element of Penelope’s design language—was reimagined. For this collection, the label is inset directly into the bottle itself and enhanced with a rich two-tone palette, creating depth and dimension without sacrificing the clean modernity that fans of the brand have come to recognize.
The wraparound label, another thoughtful detail, concludes in a numbered medallion, making each bottle feel wholly individual. In the world of premium whiskey, numbering matters. It conveys the scarcity of the release while reinforcing the sense that each bottle carries a personal story. The custom capsule that tops the bottle continues this attention to flow and form, with colors that extend upward, unifying the entire visual experience. The brandmark stamped on the capsule further reinforces the sense of identity and craft, offering a final, satisfying note of completion.
With such a powerful debut, the Estate Collection could have easily risked becoming a one-hit design achievement. But instead, Penelope and Watermark have extended the visual language into subsequent releases: Single Barrel and Private Select. These expressions embrace the foundational elements introduced in Founder’s Reserve, while expanding the palette and textures to reflect their unique identities. Deep jewel tones give these later releases a richness that suggests depth and complexity in the whiskey, while elegant finishes—subtle metallic accents, refined typography, thoughtful color blocking—complete the sense of elevated craftsmanship.
Through these successive releases, the Estate Collection has become more than a set of bottles. It has become a lineage, each iteration deepening the design framework and adding nuance to Penelope’s evolving identity. The unified visual language creates continuity, while the individual variations introduce flexibility and space for creative expression. This balance is difficult to achieve, yet Watermark and Penelope have managed to craft a system that feels at once controlled and alive, structured yet capable of evolving over time.
What makes the Estate Collection remarkable is not simply its premium appearance, but the way the design reflects the values embedded in the whiskey itself. Whiskey at ten or eleven years carries a certain gravity—time becomes an ingredient, complexity deepens, and nuances emerge that are impossible to replicate with shortcuts. The packaging honors these qualities. Every design choice—from the heft of the glass to the layering of labels to the tactile metals—conveys intention. It tells consumers that the experience of the whiskey begins long before the cork is pulled.
In an era when the spirits industry is more crowded than ever, genuine distinction is hard to come by. Many brands rely on ornamental packaging without the storytelling depth to support it. Penelope has taken the opposite approach, using design not as decoration, but as narrative structure. The Estate Collection thus becomes a representation of Penelope’s journey toward maturity—not only in the age of its whiskey but in the refinement of its brand voice. This is the work of a company thinking long-term, building a foundation upon which future generations of the portfolio can stand.
Watermark Design’s influence is unmistakable. The studio has translated Penelope’s ethos into a tangible presence, crafting a visual identity that feels both sophisticated and accessible. For collectors, the Estate Collection offers pieces worthy of display. For whiskey enthusiasts, it offers a tactile extension of the sensory pleasure of tasting a well-aged spirit. And for Penelope Bourbon, it marks a defining step in the brand’s evolution toward enduring prestige.
In the end, the Estate Collection is not just about aesthetic excellence or aged whiskey. It is about alignment—between product and presentation, vision and execution, tradition and innovation. Penelope Bourbon has entered a new era, and through the artistry of Watermark Design, that era is expressed with clarity, confidence, and unmistakable beauty.
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