Old Pulteney has spent two centuries letting the sea do half the work. For its 200th birthday, the Wick distillery has bottled the oldest whisky in its history: a 50 Year Old limited to 200 crystal decanters, released alongside a 30 Year Old run of 1,000. Both were distilled and matured on Scotland’s far north coast, both lean on American oak with a European oak seasoning, and both carry the saline thread that has defined The Maritime Malt since 1826. The 50 Year Old (40.8% ABV) is priced at £19,499.95; the 30 Year Old (50.4% ABV) at £1,724.95. Interest can be registered at oldpulteney.com, and both are already listed by UK specialists such as Hard To Find Whisky, which ships internationally with deliveries from July 2026.
What Old Pulteney is releasing for its 200th birthday
Pulteney Distillery was founded in 1826, and to mark two centuries International Beverage has put out two limited editions that bracket the distillery’s recent history: a 30 Year Old and, for the first time ever, a 50 Year Old.
The headline is the age. Old Pulteney’s previous ceiling was a 25 Year Old in the core range. Jumping to 50 years is not a small step for a coastal distillery, where the salt-laden air and active maturation tend to push whisky toward earlier bottling rather than later. Holding spirit for half a century in Caithness and ending up with something balanced rather than over-oaked is the real achievement here.
Master of Whisky Creation Sarah Burgess selected the casks for both. Her framing is worth repeating because it explains the brief: she thinks of casks as individuals that change over time, and her job was to pick the ones that honour different moments across the 200-year story while still tasting unmistakably like Old Pulteney.
There is also a third, separate bicentenary bottling worth knowing about: a 200th Anniversary Distillery Exclusive 10 Year Old, finished in both Manzanilla and Oloroso sherry casks at 48% ABV, sold mainly through the distillery. It is not part of this release, but it rounds out the anniversary trio for anyone tracking the full set.
Old Pulteney 50 Year Old: four casks, fifty years, 200 bottles
The 50 Year Old was drawn from just four hogshead casks, predominantly American oak with a subtle seasoning of European oak. Fifty years of evaporation has brought it down to 40.8% ABV, which is exactly what you expect from a Scotch this old: the angels take the strength, and what survives is concentration rather than power.
Only 200 bottles exist, each one numbered.
Old Pulteney 50 Year Old official distillery tasting notes
Colour: dark gold with bronze highlights
Nose: saline sea air, orchard fruit, cask char, plum preserve, green apple, vanilla, toasted brioche with citrus marmalade, a note of fine leather
Palate: dry and refined, light salinity, cracked pepper, cask char, toffee apple, cardamom, clove, sweet cured tobacco
Finish: dry at first, then sweet vanilla, like the gentle surge of the tide
ABV: 40.8% | Casks: four hogsheads, ex-bourbon American oak with European oak | Outturn:200 bottles | Price: £19,499.95 (70cl)
Old Pulteney 30 Year Old: hand-filled by the distillery manager
The 30 Year Old is the more attainable of the two, relatively speaking, at 1,000 bottles. It was matured in American oak and refined in European oak, and at 50.4% ABV it arrives with considerably more grip than its older sibling.
The detail that gives it provenance: Distillery Manager Malcolm Waring personally hand-filled the casks this whisky spent three decades in. That is the kind of fact that matters to collectors and tells you the distillery is treating this as a legacy bottling rather than a warehouse sweep.
Old Pulteney 30 Year Old official distillery tasting notes
Nose: sugared almonds, sweet oak, pear, green apple, toffee, polished oak, citrus, leather, tobacco, a gentle maritime breeze
Palate: citrus, crisp pear, salted caramel, baked apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, polished oak, delicate floral notes
Finish: warm spice and polished oak, with a saline edge
ABV: 50.4% | Casks: American oak, refined in European oak | Outturn: 1,000 bottles | Price: £1,724.95 (70cl)
How the two anniversary bottlings compare
| 50 Year Old | 30 Year Old | |
|---|---|---|
| ABV | 40.8% | 50.4% |
| Casks | Four hogsheads, mostly American oak, European oak seasoning | American oak, refined in European oak |
| Outturn | 200 bottles | 1,000 bottles |
| Nose | Sea air, plum jam, vanilla, marmalade, leather | Sugared almonds, pear, toffee, citrus, sea breeze |
| Palate | Pepper, toffee apple, clove, tobacco, dark chocolate | Citrus, salted caramel, baked apple, cinnamon, nutmeg |
| Character | Concentrated, soft, deeply mature | Brighter, spicier, more structured |
| For whom | The serious collector and the 50-year completist | Drinkers who want a 30-year coastal malt they might actually open |
| Price | £19,499.95 | £1,724.95 |
The salt is not marketing: what Old Pulteney actually tastes like
We have not tasted the 50 or the 30, and 200 bottles being what it is, most readers won’t either. But the reason this release interests us at all is that we know what Old Pulteney does, and we like it.
Across the core range there is a consistent saline lift that genuinely sets the distillery apart. The 12 Year Old leans light and bright, vanilla and a clean brine that reads almost like sea spray. Step up to the 15 and 18 and the sherry influence deepens the fruit without burying that coastal note, which is the trick most maritime malts can’t pull off. The 25 is where it all comes together, richer and more resolved but still recognisably from Wick.
We have come back to these glasses at The Whisky Show and elsewhere, and the through-line never changes: this is whisky that tastes like where it was made. So when International Beverage builds an entire bicentenary, and a campaign called Character Runs Deep, around that saline identity, it is leaning on something real rather than inventing a story. The official notes on both new bottles put sea air front and centre, and on the evidence of everything below them in the range, that is not a stretch.
Why Wick matters: the distillery the sea built
Pulteney Distillery sits in Wick, a fishing port on the windswept Caithness coast at the far northeast tip of mainland Scotland. It was founded in 1826 by James Henderson during the town’s herring boom and named after the newly built Pulteneytown district.
For international readers, the geography is the point. Wick was, for much of its history, reached mainly by sea. Barley arrived by boat into the harbour, and the same boats carried the whisky back out to the world. That isolation, and the constant exposure to salt air, is what gives Old Pulteney its character. The whisky’s story is inseparable from the sea and from the community around it.
Those 200 years were not unbroken. Wick voted itself dry under the Temperance movement, and the distillery fell silent in 1930. Local prohibition did not end until 1947, and production only resumed in 1951. Inver House took ownership in 1995 and launched the now widely recognised 12 Year Old in 1997, the bottle that built Old Pulteney’s modern reputation. For many years it was the most northerly distillery on the Scottish mainland.
Two hundred years on, it is still made on the same site, and it still tastes of its coast.
The decanters: Glencairn crystal and driftwood oak
Both bottles were designed by Lewis Moberly, with two UK specialists brought in to build them. Glencairn Crystal, the family-run Scottish firm behind the official Glencairn nosing glass, handcrafted the decanters; Morans Wood Components built the outer casings.
The 50 Year Old sits in a hand-blown crystal decanter, each one unique, with sand-etched wave patterns rippling around the base and a sculptural curved gold cradle. The oak outer case takes its design from the driftwood of Wick’s shoreline.
The 30 Year Old keeps the distillery’s distinctive bottle-neck shape, drawn from Old Pulteney’s unusually shaped stills, finished with rose gold detailing and the same sand-etched ocean waves at the base. Its case, again, references weathered driftwood. It is serious presentation, and on a 30-year-old malt at this price it needs to be.
Price and availability
Old Pulteney 50 Year Old: £19,499.95, 70cl, 40.8% ABV, 200 bottles Old Pulteney 30 Year Old: £1,724.95, 70cl, 50.4% ABV, 1,000 bottles
You can register interest directly at oldpulteney.com, and the two bottles are reaching select specialist partners from June 2026 across the UK, Global Travel Retail, China, Japan, France and the USA. UK specialist Hard To Find Whisky already lists both, with shipping from July and international delivery to most of Europe, including Denmark, as well as the US and worldwide. With outturns this small, acting early is the only realistic route to a bottle, particularly the 50.
Our take on it
The 50 Year Old is a trophy. At nearly twenty thousand pounds and 200 bottles, it is priced and built for collectors and serious investors, and it will mostly be bought, displayed and resold rather than poured. That is not a criticism, it is just what a 50-year-old single malt is in 2026. If you have the means and you want the oldest Old Pulteney that exists, this is the only one there will ever be at this age for this anniversary.
The 30 Year Old is the more interesting bottle for actual whisky drinkers. At £1,724.95 it is still firmly a luxury purchase, but 50.4% ABV, a proper 30-year age statement, a 1,000-bottle run and that hand-filled provenance make it a genuine drinking proposition rather than a shelf piece. For anyone who already knows and likes the coastal house style from the 18 or the 25, this is the natural next step up.
Neither is a value play, and we won’t pretend otherwise. But the saline character that makes Old Pulteney worth caring about is real, and a bicentenary is a fair reason to celebrate it. If you want the coastal character without the outlay, the 18 Year Old at around £120 remains the smartest bottle in the range.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Old Pulteney 50 Year Old? It is the oldest whisky ever released by Old Pulteney, bottled for the distillery’s 200th anniversary in 2026. Drawn from four hogshead casks, predominantly American oak with European oak seasoning, it is bottled at 40.8% ABV and limited to just 200 bottles worldwide at £19,499.95.
What is the difference between the Old Pulteney 50 and 30 Year Old? The 50 Year Old is older, softer and far rarer: 40.8% ABV, 200 bottles, £19,499.95. The 30 Year Old is younger, stronger and more available: 50.4% ABV, 1,000 bottles, £1,724.95, with casks hand-filled by the distillery manager. Both use American oak refined or seasoned with European oak.
How much do the Old Pulteney anniversary whiskies cost? The Old Pulteney 50 Year Old (70cl) is priced at £19,499.95 and the 30 Year Old (70cl) at £1,724.95. Both are limited editions released for the distillery’s bicentenary, so prices reflect their rarity and the handcrafted Glencairn crystal decanters they are presented in.
Where can I buy Old Pulteney 50 and 30 Year Old? Register interest at oldpulteney.com, or buy from specialist retailers. UK specialist Hard To Find Whisky lists both, shipping from July with international delivery to Europe including Denmark, the US and worldwide. Both also reach partners across Global Travel Retail, China, Japan and France from June 2026. With 200 and 1,000 bottles, act early.
What does Old Pulteney taste like? Old Pulteney is known as The Maritime Malt for a reason: a consistent saline, sea-air character runs through the range, balanced by vanilla, orchard fruit and, in older expressions, richer sherried depth. The two anniversary bottlings carry that coastal thread, with the 50 leaning soft and concentrated and the 30 brighter and spicier.
What is Old Pulteney distillery known for? Founded in 1826 in the fishing port of Wick on Scotland’s far north coast, Old Pulteney is one of the mainland’s most northerly distilleries. It is celebrated for a distinctly coastal, salt-tinged single malt and an unusually shaped still. Its core range includes the 12, 15, 18 and 25 Year Old.
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