The 50-plus club – is this the most exclusive whisky club in the world?

Very few people around the world can tell you with confidence what a 50-year-old single malt whisky tastes like – are you one of them?

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As clubs go, the one that’s made up of people who have tasted some of the oldest whisky in the world has got to be pretty small. There are so few five-decade-plus vintages out there and even fewer that ever get poured, that joining is a serious endeavour. 

This writer gets to drink a lot of exclusive bottlings. The oldest vintage I’ve enjoyed at leisure is a 36-year-old from Ireland’s Bushmills Distillery. It was incredible and I was honoured to taste it, but it was a short-lived encounter with the distillery’s highest vintage. The world’s oldest licensed distillery has since released a 46-year-old Bushmills single malt that surpassed it and now holds the title of the country’s oldest single malt.  

But even that number pales when you hit the 50-year-old mark. Ireland’s Midleton Distillery has recently released the oldest single pot still whiskey at 50 years old: Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery Chapter 6, a whiskey you’ll only encounter if you can afford the €60,000 price tag.

Scotland’s Charge

For choice at this vintage, Scotland is the leader with a slightly larger number of excellent vintage releases. Macallan, of course, has its entrant: The Macallan 50 - The Red Collection, which at almost €50,000 represents the exclusivity of this vintage perfectly. 

Loch Lomond 50 is a Highland entry with a 42.6% ABV and an average €24,000 price tag, while Glenfiddich’s 50-year-old Simultaneous Time release comes in at around €32,000. Each of these bottles are direct distillery releases: landmark bottlings to celebrate landmark years in the history of each bottle's maker. The price follows suit.

Value at 50

But where do you find real value at this vintage? Scotland’s whisky market is the most developed in the world. It’s robust, evolved and thriving and within it is a secret weapon: Scotland’s independent single cask bottling sector. Independent bottlers work hand-in-hand with distilleries to find the very best single cask releases and offer them at prices that match market demand. 

Gordon and MacPhail is a perfect example. Operating since 1895, this Elgin-based bottler is considered among the very finest single cask whisky makers in Scotland. It has worked with almost every distillery in the country, selecting casks and creating releases that consistently create headlines and record auction results. And it does so at a price point that is much more achievable than direct distillery releases. 

Linkwood 50

The Gordon & MacPhail Linkwood 50 is a case in point. This exclusive single cask bottling resulted in a 166-bottle release of this 42.4% single malt from the Diageo-owned distillery and is priced at a little under €5,000.

With five decades in oak, it’s a striking example of the quality Linkwood creates from its Speyside distillery in Elgin. Master blenders love Linkwood for its rich and opulent malt, which remains delicate in flavour while delivering an incredible silky mouthfeel.

Gordon and MacPhail has championed Linkwood for decades, releasing some of its best-known bottlings. Its Linkwood collection is outstanding, offering multiple single-cask vintage releases of this elegant whisky. The Linkwood 1956 release, in particular, grabbed headlines in 2018. The auction rooms adored this decanter of rare whisky, first laid down 60 years before in a first-fill sherry hogshead. It was the last of Gordon & MacPhail’s 1950s casks and considered the last of the Linkwood 1950s casks in the world. 

Now this 50-year-old bottling is claiming its own territory with expert whisky writer Charles MacLean stating on launch that “malts distilled before innovations of the 1970s, as this Linkwood 1971 was, open a sensory window on the past. They are themselves liquid history, and as such are hugely emotive. From a collector’s perspective, they are so rare that they are sometimes described as ‘unicorns’ – gorgeous mythical creatures. Combining these factors makes such malts highly desirable to connoisseurs, collectors and investors.”

Linkwood 50 is a born collector’s item, but for those who want to pour it, it represents a wonderful ticket into one of the most exclusive whisky clubs. Are you ready to join the 50-plus club?