Highland Park 54 Year Old presented

Petra Milde |

It is the oldest bottled whisky of the distillery to date

 

The Highland Park Distillery has unveiled its oldest whisky bottling to date: The Highland Park 54 Year Old is being released to mark the 225th birthday of the distillery in Orkney. In keeping with this venerable birthday, exactly 225 bottles of the exceptional single malt are on offer. The price is just as impressive as the whisky bottling: 39,000 pounds are called for it.

On its homepage, the distillery reveals more details about Highland Park 54 Years, including the aroma. It is described as intensely rich, sweet and complex. Intriguing aromas of exotic lychee and aromatic camphor, vintage oak and delicate peat, herald the exquisitely balanced flavours that follow. Warm spices – crushed cumin and coriander seeds – emerge and subside to reveal fragrant notes of summer rose and jasmine, with just a hint of honeyed kiwi fruit and pistachio biscotti. Sweet and spicy at the end, woody notes give way to a lingering whisper of sweet fenugreek and heathery peat smoke.

Highland Park 54 Year Old: As a 40-year-old moved into seasoned casks for final maturation.

Highland Park 54 Year Old goes back to 10 refill casks (four butts and six hoghsheads) that were filled and placed in the warehouse in 1968. In February 2008, Master Whisky Maker Gordon Motion selected them and had the then 40-year-old single malt moved into 10 first-fill sherry-seasoned casks, Highland Park reports. During the following 14 years, the whisky developed the aromatic character that Gordon Motion was aiming for. So now it has been bottled as a 54-year-old single malt whisky in natural colour with an alcohol content of 46.9% ABV.

The Highland Park 54 Year Old, which comes in a special decanter and bespoke oak packaging, is available from selected retailers. You can also register your interest in a bottle here on Highland Park's homepage. However, this does not guarantee that you will get your hands on one of them. The price of 39,000 pounds refers to the purchase in the UK and includes the taxes and shipping costs there; it will be adjusted accordingly for delivery to another countries.

Images: Highland Park

About the author Petra Milde

Petra Milde is a freelance author of books and specialist writing about spirits and food. She has been supporting the Whisky.de editorial team since 2015 and creates informative and entertaining articles in the news section.

Besides her writing work, she moderates tastings and can be met at spirits fairs, both behind the stands and in front of them, looking for new products and interesting people to talk to.

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