Cuvée presentation
Single cask Highland Park (#4313), distilled in 1975 and bottled in 1996 by Signatory Vintage. Its founder, Andrew Symington, entered the whisky business selecting casks for Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh, an experience that led him to establish Signatory Vintage in 1988. Symington invested in a small bottling line, which he installed in his Edinburgh warehouses. From the outset, he bottled whisky at cask strength, without chill filtration or added colouring, practices that were still relatively uncommon in the late 1980s. The legendary “dumpy bottle” series also provided details rarely disclosed by bottlers at the time, including cask number and type and the number of bottles produced, with each bottle individually numbered by hand. Signatory Vintage built its reputation not only on landmark releases from legendary distilleries such as Springbank, Ardbeg, Laphroaig and Bowmore, but also on bottlings from exceptionally rare distilleries including Ben Wyvis, Glen Flagler and Killyloch. These were complemented by numerous releases distilled in Lomond stills at Miltonduff (Mosstowie), Glen Keith (Craigduff, Glenisla) and Glenburgie (Glencraig). In 2002, Andrew Symington acquired Edradour distillery in Pitlochry in the Highlands and relocated Signatory Vintage there, with its warehouses facing the distillery. Limited edition of 330 bottles.
The distillery Highland Park
Scotland, Isle of Orkney. Distillery operational. Owner: The Edrington Group Ltd
Owned by the Edrington Group, Highland Park remained for a long time somewhat of a niche malt reserved for connoisseurs and well-informed enthusiasts, notably due to its kinship with Macallan. The distillery drew its quintessence from this relationship and the access it afforded to perfect mastery of sherry cask ageing and beautifully sculpted casks. The rest comes from the island's natural, cultural and geographic heritage. Established in 1798 on Orkney, a wind- and wave-swept island where Viking blood continues to run through the veins of its inhabitants, Highland Park produces a traditional malt, characterized by its lightly peated barley which is malted on site. Although the bottle shape evolved at the turn of the 1980s, the style remained the same until the late 1990s. Playing on a profound sherry register in which subtle notes of iodine and peat smoke highlight its almost mystical Celtic temperament, Highland Park has today come completely out of the shadows. It is one of the most legitimate distilleries in the collectibles world due to its history, the consistent quality of its malt and the breadth of the range.
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