I just saw this on the Highland Park Facebook page and thought I would post it up. Cool bottle. Expensive whisky. I sure hope it tastes good. This is all the info I have right now. If someone else knows more, feel free to comment.
New Launch. The ultimate treat this Christmas comes from Highland Park, with the third bottling from the Orcadian Vintage Series. The 1970 Vintage gives the signature honey sweetness you would expect from Highland Park with a burst of caramelised pineapple and a citrus kick. With balance, character and provenance, 1970… Vintage has been selected on its own unique flavours and complexity (RRP £2,250)
I think the price is ridiculous. Also following the comments on the FB page of HP I think this is a great malt, but not worth it for this prices. I mean no whisky should be this expensive, they are intended to be drink, not stocked in a museum display.
an aside: i wonder what the highest prices are that the readers of this blog would find acceptable for a whisky (from a “buy to drink” standpoint).
People seemed to love the Glenfarclas 40 at the $400 price point. But, I think that’s a definite peak. I’m considering the Port Ellen 30YO for a best friend’s birthday at that price point, but it’s steep. I was able to pick up a bottle of Laphroaig 30 for a similar birthday at $300 and it pained me a bit.
I think an exceptional whisky between $200 to $300 is probably what most people would deal with, and just have it as a special occasion.
Mongo : Great question. But break it up into two categories. Your everyday bottle, what you would spend on yourself. Then your special occasion purchase for yourself . Everybody keep up the great thoughts.
for an “everyday” bottle i do not go over the $100 (u.s.) threshold. but those aren’t true everyday bottles–more like bottles i’ll finish within a month or three. real everyday bottles (your laphroaig and ardbeg 10s and highland park 12 and so on) i stay below the $60 mark.
my limit for a special occasion purchase is $300. and that’s a bottle that’s going to last a very long time and is never going to be shared with anyone whose taste in whisky i don’t entirely respect.
Similarly to others, I spend approx. $80-$100 for everyday bottle (I stopped buying cheaper whisky). I do buy $400-500/bottle whisky (after some research and usually in Britain) but would only pay more than that for something very rare and may not drink it for a while.
(sorry to hijack this thread, john: i should have suggested it as a new topic.)
Outrageous pricing.
HP, really. who buys a Xmas dram for the price of a little used car?
Mmmm…
How would this compare to Independent Bottlings of the same age and vintage (at a fifth of the price!)
Answers please!
I want to know the size of the run, how many bottles. I don’t foresee circumstances in which I would purchase a bottle — including, for instance, a big winning ticket — but I wonder how limited the release is. If “new launch” implies a continuing expression in the HP portfolio, then the price point is especially disappointing to me. However, I’ve little doubt the market will bear it…
Both the price and bottle is very ugly
/Macdeffe
We must not forget that bottles in this price range have a much larger dealer markup built in. If they didn’t, why would any store put down a major chunk of cask for something that might take a long time to sell. Highland Ppark had a 40 year old 1958 release about a decade ago for around $2000, and I eventually saw one store dumping it for $1200 a few years later. It makes me wonder why they don’t forget about all of the fancy marketing, and sell it for a normal price. I could live with the $400-500 mentioned above. A four figure price tag won’t sell any more 12-18 year old bottles, something that the average SMS lover could aspire to would.
Slainte.
Louis
Yikes!!! Another whisky I won’t be tasting.
I’ve tasted the HP 40yo 3 times and it was one of these most precious moments in my scotch tasting history. There’s only one bottle of this available in Quebec province Canada (4300$), if i had that much money i would buy this one but sadly… But for me, any HP bottle worth the price the were sold…
Have also tasted the 40 YO twice and its excellent but the 30 YO is my choice of the the traditional lineup of Highland Parks.
I feel the same, BJ. 40 is lovely stuff, but the 30 rocks! I’d pick it over the 40.
For all of you who, like me, see 300-400 as about the top price you’d pay for a great malt– How much bigger would your salary have to be ($/yr., $/hr., etc.) before you would have no qualms about picking up a bottle at the price of this HP?
Or do you feel that a principled middle class economic ethic would guide you away from this bottle even if you were a trillionaire?
If I had almost unlimited funds, I may buy this whisky (just to try) but I think that it is overpriced for1970 vintage. I pay >$400 for age, uniqueness and …certain vintage of whisky. I would not, with my limited financial resources, pay $400+ for a bottle if it did not have some sentimental value for me because of its vintage year or historical importance, no matter how good it was (unless, I wanted to establish a reference point for my tasting and knowledge of whisky). I have to learn something about whisky or have some emotional attachment to it, to pay big money.
Unfortunately, I cannot afford whisky from the the year, I was born but I am working on it
If I were a Trilionaire (or even a Billionaire), I would buy a bottle and share it with my friends. Alas, I am not, and never will be, so I won’t be buying this whisky.
A fool and his money…