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This latest
Highland Park 50 Year Old expression is
the third 50 year old single malt whisky
released by the Orkney distillery,
created using their Solera style system.
Highland Park today unveiled its new
50 Year Old expression, this is the
third Highland Park 50 Year Old to be
released from the Orkney distillery,
interestingly this latest expression is
linked to the first two 50 year old
releases by more than its age, as
Highland Park has created all of the 50
year old expressions using a Solera
style system to mature the whisky. You
will note that it has been bottled in
2020, probably another release which has
been a little delayed because of Covid
but if my experience of older Highland
Park whiskies are anything to go by I am
sure it will have been worth the wait.
The Solera system they use to mature the
50 year old is a system which is best
known as a method of maturing Sherry,
they take a small quantity of the whisky
produced from a previous batch and marry
it together with the new whisky,
continuing a legacy within a legacy.
This latest Highland Park 50 Year Old
expression is a combination nine refill
casks, originally laid down back in
1968, married together 40 years later in
2008 then re-racked into a handful of
the first-fill sherry seasoned oak
casks. Then, after a further 12 years of
maturation, one of these limited casks
was selected and married with a small
quantity of the whisky from the last 50
Year Old released by the distillery.
Gordon Motion, Highland Park, Master
Whisky Maker, said: "This 50 Year Old
whisky is one of our oldest and rarest
releases and I’m very proud to have been
a part of its journey.
"The whisky is spectacular, when I
sampled the whisky from the re-racked
casks, the whisky it contained – aged
for a little over 50 years – had
absorbed the rich sherried flavours of
dried fruit and sweet toffee from its
final first-fill cask maturation, but
still retained all the delicate
fragrance and flavours driven by the
original refill casks.
"I introduced a small quantity of this
cask to some of our 2018 batch of 50
Year Old, which I’d held back
specifically for this purpose, to create
a further layer of depth and complexity.
As the 2018 50 Year Old also contains
some of our 2010 batch of 50 Year Old –
our first in the series - this approach
allows me to maintain the core DNA of
our oldest Highland Park whisky through
each extremely limited batch release."
Presented in a hand-made wooden box,
crafted from walnut by Scottish Master
Craftsman, John Galvin, the whisky is
encased in an embossed heavy-weight
glass bottle featuring a design inspired
by the Norse heritage of our Orkney
island home, which dates back over 1200
years. Decorated in intricately
decorated metal, encasing a hand-crafted
crystal decanter and leather-bound book
detailing the story of the 50 Year Old
whisky completes the presentation.
The new Highland Park 50 Year Old has been bottled at 43.8% ABV, it
is a limited release of 274 bottles and
as you can imagine you will need deep
pockets if you want to taste this one,
it has a RRP of £20,000 and it will be
available from
specialist online whisky retailers
such as
The Whisky Exchange and
Master of
Malt
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