Over the years, liquor marketing has morphed into a form of fashion iconography. The packaging is the product. If that pleases you, so be it. Just recognize that's what you are paying for. With little exception, the stuff inside the bottle is dirt cheap. The ingredients are cheap (water and low dollar farm grains, for heavens sake). The manufacturing process is cheap. No matter how many yarns the marketers spin about aged wooden barrels and old family recipes.
The money goes into marketing, to convince you it's not cheap.
The money goes into marketing, to convince you it's not cheap.