Monkey Shoulder must have been a difficult brief for designer Lewis Moberly. It was created with a young audience in mind and inspired by the posture of distillery men, formed after years of turning barley by hand. "It had to balance the unexpected with the familiar," explained Mary Lewis, design director at Lewis Moberly, whose design team came up with a clear, simple but modern label which explained the story behind the name, which was visually reinforced by the appropriate positioning of three polished pewter monkeys on the shoulder of the clear glass bottle. The design quickly caught the trade's imagination, and also crucially, the consumers. It was felt by the judges that Monkey Shoulder had "bridged a gap between Bourbon and Malt," and "really stood out." The finished product was beautifully executed, and looked as though it had a history.
