This fall, Highland Park will be introducing two new vintage: 1964 and 1968. This is the beginning of ONGOING Highland Park vintage releases (not in any sequential vintage order).
I have the details on both, which I’m including below.
1964
Consists of only two casks, refill hogsheads. Bottled at 42.3%. 290 bottles. Price: £3,750
1968
Consists of eight refill casks (7 hogsheads, 1 sherry butt). Bottled at 45.8%. 1550 bottles. Price: £2,250
As of now, the 1964 vintage will NOT becoming to the U.S. Both of these whiskies will be available for tasting at the Charity table at WhiskyFest New York in November, for a small donation to charity.
There will also be a 50 year old Highland Park released in 2010. This, too, will be an ongoing release, not a one-time deal. (I believe that will be the only ongoing 50 year old release that I know about.)
Start saving your pennies.
Really,that cheap?
Book me two of each!!!!
By the way there are lots of 60′s vintages of many distileries in waaaaay less money.
I love HP and i prefer to stay at the excelent 18&25 bottlings than dreaming those profoundly collector’s items.
I’m one of the rare breed that likes many 12 years over 18′s (including the Highland Park), and puts little stock in 21+ year bottlings. That said, I have no doubt these will sell out quickly, as there is no shortage of people willing to drop huge dough to add to their collections and impress their colleagues.
Honestly, as a whisky lover and collector, I’m getting bored with out-of-space-priced whiskies…They’re nor an investment neither affordable for the majority of people…That said if someone can spend money on those not criticism, but even if I’ve aways been willing to pay for quality, now it looks like the whisky industry is going a bit offrail…
There certainly is a lot of older, expensive whiskies coming out lately. That’s for sure.
I’m with maltakias.
I’ll stick to my HP 18 & 25, thanks.
But if you have any left over you don’t want, I’ll be happy to force myself to try it.
John, when do you think this big swell of super-expensive old whiskies began?
redarremer,
Back in 1999, there was the 40 yo Bowmore that went for $7000, the 1946 Macallan for $2500, and the 1959 Highland Park for $2000. The Bowmore came in a fancy ‘vault’ case with a crystal decanter included. The others came in more or less conventional packaging. Macallan also had some pricey items in the Fine and Rare series, but only the very old bottles cost a fortune.
From my vantage point, the Black Bowmore legitimized the obscenely high prices currently being asked. I can’t blame the distillery, as original Black Bowmores were going for several thousand dollars by then. By now, everybody else seems to have jumped on the bandwagon, regardless of the quality of the whisky in the bottle, or desireability.
IMHO, the price-rarity ration holds up to around $2000 for a 40 year old malt. Not that I can even remotely afford a single bottle at that price, of course. Given that these Highland Parks seem suitable for drinking and aren’t overtly collectors items (as with the Black Bowmore), we’ll see if they actually sell at those prices.
Slainte.
Louis
Much appreciated, Louis.
Not to get off subject, but does anybody else think that these high priced whisky’s, that just keep popping out like rabbits, will drive more peopleto the Indies, where you can still find good, older whisky at affordable prices? I can only pray that they don’t follow the lead!!
I think there is a gravitational pull.
It’s more apparent with the manager’s selection, which was close enough to most of our price thresholds to make us drool (FTR the whole thing didn’t really upset me like it did some) and clearly set a precident for relatively expensive, relatively young whisky. But even these ultra-expensive “fantasy” bottles have an impact on the general market. Someone said in another topic, loosely quoting, that after staring at one of these in a shop it will be much easier to talk yourself into spending $100 on a HP 18.
Maybe indies will flourish. I hope they do. But how much older stock do they have? And I don’t think they’re totally immune from the force of gravity.
The price of ’68 is updated to £2,250. I think it was £4,000+ in the original post. What happened?
Abinash, my mistake. I typed in the wrong number accidentally. I corrected it shortly aftwerwards. (I should have mentioned somethinging here in the comment section.)It is logical that the younger whisky should be less expensive than the older one, and this is indeed the case.
Okay. I was originally a little suprised that ’68 would be more expensive than ’64. Now it makes a little more sense. Still too much though to be reasonable.
[...] first mentioned these two Highland Park whiskies here on WDJK a few months back. Only the 1968 vintage is being imported to the U.S. and it won’t [...]