Maybe the thing that most impresses me about the Glencairn glass is how ubiquitous it has become as a symbol or icon for “whisky.” I don’t know how clubs & festivals symbolized whisky in their logos before 2001, but today the shape of a whisky glass is effectively a hieroglyph for the concept of whisky. When my local club adopted a logo a few years back, the two finalists included a beautiful hand-drawn option and a simpler option based on our city flag. The simpler one won in a landslide, and I’m convinced it’s because the Glencairn glass spoke to members of whisky more than the barrel did. The winning logo also refers to barrels with a hoop around it, but it’s a subtle element that most don’t even notice. So it was kind of Glencairn versus barrel, and Glencairn won. Anyway, I share the example to illustrate how remarkably ubiquitous the Glencairn has become as a symbol for the concept of whisky.

Posted by Scott Rogers at 2023-04-14 14:51:13 UTC