A look at Highland Park 1968
Posted in Scotch, Whisky on February 24th, 2010 by halw – Be the first to comment
Highland Park recently announced the latest edition to its award-winning family of whiskies, an extremely limited bottling harkening back to the year 1968. Making it just slightly older than the 40 Year Old release that hit shelves in 2008 which we took at earlier this year here.
So why release something that’s only a two years older than its oldest offering? Well as Martin Daraz the US Brand Ambassador for HIghland Park said, “because we can”.
During a presentation that I recently attended to celebrate the release of Highland 1968, Martin mentioned that the spirit was released for the fans of Highland Park, whether that’s a group of whisky loving friends splitting the purchase of one bottle or the avid collector that plans to save it for a special occasion.
Martin also went on to say that while they have a wealth of barrels aging in the Highland Distillery
and thus can keep up the availability of the 40 year old release as part of their portfolio, the 1968 release is limited to a mere 1,550 bottles available globally and will retail for $3,999. Once the 1968 is gone, it’s gone.
During this presentation I had the opportunity to sample a small amount of the extremely limited Highland 1968. The experience of tasting the Highland 1968 could be described as truly remarkable. A spirit that starts off with a nose marrying flavors of baked apples and cinnamon so precisely defined they instantly reminded me of spending a summer’s evening as a child eating candied apples and wandering the local carnival.
Once I began to slowly, and I do mean slowly taste this spirit, my palate instantly recognized flavors of sweet hazelnut and cocoa. As I continued to taste through Highland 1968 I picked up hints of sea salt that combined with those previous notes of cocoa to form a taste reminiscent of fleur de sel chocolates. As it continued to work its way through my palate, flavors of caramel lead into a finish akin to a creme brulee with a sprinkle of smoke.
Martin Daraz closed out his presentation with the statement that Highland 1968 was an experimental release. Well Highland Park, the experiment was a utter success. I’ve got a bit of a smile just wondering when I’ll get to taste it again. Any spirit that can leave a memory of the experience of tasting it, is definitely worth tracking done.
Final Score: 9.5/10
