Highland Park 31 Years Old 1988

Nuckelavee - 4th Release This Highland Park whisky has been matured for 31 years, starting off in an ex-sherry hogshead and then finished in an ex-Rivesaltes fortified French wine cask. Great rings of standing stones are evidence that people have inhabited the Orkney Islands since the neolithic age, 8,500 years ago. The lands may be fertile and the seas may be full of fish, but life is not easy at 59⁰ north. Winters are long, cold and dark -and frequent storms whip across the archipelago. The natural world provides challenge enough; places as isolated as Orkney may also find themselves threatened by supernatural forces. The most terrible of these is the beast known as ‘Nuckelavee’. This is a creature so foul and evil that eyewitness accounts are mercifully rare. The Nuckelavee lives in the sea, confined during the daylight months by the Mither o’ the Sea whose power weakens as autumn arrives… It has the body of a horse, with skin flayed off, exposing crawling muscles and yellow veins that pump black blood. In its head blazes a single red eye, and from its gaping mouth issue vapours so pestilent, they cause crops to wilt and livestock to sicken and die. From a distance, Nuckelavee appears to have a rider, but up close it can be seen that a human torso erupts direct from the beast’s back, groaning and lolling from side to side as it drags grasping arms that reach all the way to the ground.