The Boundary Keepers is a privately commissioned whisky created for a collective of neighbouring high-country station owners in Lake Tekapo, New Zealand.
 
Their shared barrel of 18-year-old Speyside single malt had become part of a tradition of gathering at the remaining Boundary Keeper huts—historic shelters once occupied by shepherds who patrolled station boundaries before fencing wire existed.
 
The challenge was to create a bottle that honoured both Scottish whisky heritage and the unique history of New Zealand's Mackenzie Basin, avoiding luxury clichés in favour of something authentic, weathered and deeply rooted in place.
 
Rather than creating a whisky brand, we created an artefact of a shared tradition.
 
The concept draws together two landscapes separated by half the world but united through whisky, history and ritual. Every detail tells the story of the Boundary Keepers, culminating in a quiet visual joke: while the Keepers gather to enjoy their whisky, a lone merino sheep quietly wanders beyond the boundary unnoticed.
 
The bottle itself becomes part of the story.
 

Every design decision reinforces authenticity and place.
 
Traditional Scotch whisky typography and nineteenth-century bottle forms establish heritage, while engraved serif letterforms subtly reference fencing wire, carved stone and station markings. A finely etched merino sheep walks off the front label towards a boundary cairn on the reverse, creating a narrative that unfolds as the bottle is turned in the hand.
 
The batch name, Straymore, extends the story, working simultaneously as a fictional Highland place, a pastoral joke and a nod to Scotch whisky naming traditions.
 
Completing the experience, a poem written in the tradition of New Zealand bush ballads wraps around the neck label, setting the mood before the bottle is opened.