Highland Park unveils 50 Year Old single malt in Hong Kong

Orkney-based Scotch distillery Highland Park has unveiled a third 50-Year-Old single malt whisky release in Hong Kong.

Available from specialist outlets globally since May 2021, this old and rare release has a total of 274 bottles, each signed by Highland Park Master Whisky Maker, Gordon Motion.

The 50-year-old whiskies have been created using a traditional solera system which takes a small quantity of the whisky produced from a previous batch and marries it together with the new whisky.

The new edition is selected from nine refill casks, originally laid down in 1968, married together in 2008 then re-racked into a handful of 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 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 is available from specialist retailers globally and a limited number is available from the distillery and online shop from May 2021.