Highland Park 12, 43% ABV Question

[Newkophile]

Stopped by a local small liquor store here in southeast Florida where I spotted this boxed bottle at a pretty fair price. I'm curious as to the age of this bottle since HP now bottles the 12 yo at 40%. So I'd like to at least know what year did HP last issue the 12 yo at 43%.

[BourbonDrinker]

I called in the BIG guns for this one. I bought a bottle myself recently and confirmed that it was 43%, but the Highland Park web site lists the 12yr at 40%. So we obviously needed to find out what the deal was with the discrepancy.
I asked Mark Gillespie of the WhiskyCast to look into it for us.
Gerry Tosh, Highland Park's Global Marketing Manager clarified that the 12 and 15yr are 40% ABV everywhere in the world except for the USA where they are 43% because of old import laws restricting imports of spirits below 43%.
He said that they don't have plans to change the ABV from 43% in the US market.
Thanks to Mark and Gerry!
Cheers!

[Brussell]

Nope, the vast majority of spirits are 40%.

I just finished an HP 12 that was 40%. I bought it in a store here in Oklahoma.

Perhaps they were referring to your state only. In my adventures interested in whisky I have found that many states ( like mine ) have incredibly awkward laws and tax codes related to alcohol. In my own state I even found 3 or 4 different governmental divisions/departments that said different things about the same issue, directly confronting each other. This makes it incredibly difficult for a consumer to know what they should and shouldn't be doing regarding the details of consuming alcohol. At the same time, I understand it because I work for the government. Each office has so much to deal with and the employees are discouraged from having the ambition to better the department, so everyone ends up stuck maintaining some misinformed bureaucrat's status quo.

My guess is that someone did tell whoever imports HP that there was some old law because either there actually is in that state, or because they thought there is. I've noticed that each whisky maker ships into a specific state for all their brands, or is a group of makers that ship into that single location. I have no idea the reason, but those state laws could also affect the process as well, if they are sold locally in that area. To avoid this, many companies (all products) will ship directly in and directly out, so that it's just import work. Then the local market's distributors get ahold of the product like everyone else so it's business as usual and the importer hasn't had to stop and pay truck loads of taxes on every shipment.

[BourbonDrinker]

That's interesting as Highland Park's Global Marketing Manager himself said that they only export the 43% 12 and 15yr to the USA. I would think he would know, he's been with them for 11 years.
It makes me wonder where this (these) 40% ABV bottle(s) came from. Perhaps they were supposed to be for Canada or travel retail?
And yes, I'm aware that many spirits are 40% now. I'm only passing on what Gerry Tosh said regarding outdated import restrictions and why they made the 12 and 15 in a different %ABV for the US market. They've been around a long time.
Do you have any photos of a 40% ABV bottle purchased in the USA? With that I could probably get you some answers. Was it the old round bottle or the newer Bulleit bourbon like oval bottle?
It seems we have a mystery from Orkney.
Cheers.

[Newkophile]

Indeed, the reason I wrote the initial post is that I've seen the HP 12 at 40% everywhere including all the Total Wine & Liquors that I've been able to visit here in southeast Florida. So this one 43% bottle that I spotted at a small liquor store, with a somewhat differently designed box BTW, struck me as unusual.

[bkblankenship]

Originally Posted by Newkophile

Stopped by a local small liquor store here in southeast Florida where I spotted this boxed bottle at a pretty fair price. I'm curious as to the age of this bottle since HP now bottles the 12 yo at 40%. So I'd like to at least know what year did HP last issue the 12 yo at 43%.

I am assuming that the 43% bottle of HP that you spotted is the large diameter mouth opening bottle and that the bottle is round rather than the new oval shape bottle. Highland Park has not stopped bottling 43% ABV. The confusion lies with many people not knowing the European market vs the USA market. Many distilleries still bottle 40% ABV for the European market which started during WWII but for the American market standard %ABV's are bottled at 43% ABV. This doesn't mean that there are not 40% ABVs on the American market but for Highland Park the distinction betweem 40% and 43% holds true.