Released in 2010, Highland Park's 50 Year Old marked one of the distillery's most significant milestones since its founding in 1798. Drawn from a single European oak sherry hogshead filled in 1960, only 275 bottles were produced. Each was presented in a hand-blown decanter cradled in a woven silver torc designed by Scottish silversmith Maeve Gillies, the metalwork referencing the distillery's Norse heritage.
At 44.8% ABV after fifty years in wood, the spirit has held its constitution remarkably well, a testament both to the cask and to the cool, damp Orcadian warehouses where evaporation runs slower than in mainland Scotland.
The nose is a study in age: old leather, antique furniture polish, dried apricot, sandalwood and the faintest curl of heather smoke that places it unmistakably as Highland Park. There is no varnish, no over-oaking, no fatigue.
On the palate it remains astonishingly intact. Dark honey, walnut oil, espresso, sultana, aged oak resin and clove move in slow procession. The texture is oily and the sherry influence has long since stopped being a layer and become part of the fabric of the spirit itself.
The finish is immense and slow-fading, leaving sandalwood, dried fig and that last lingering breath of aromatic smoke. A whisky of historical importance and one of the great achievements of long-term Highland Park maturation.
