'World's oldest' whisky unveiled

A SCOTTISH whisky firm has unveiled bottles of what it claims is the oldest single malt whisky in the world, having spent the best part of a century inside an oak barrel.

Gordon and MacPhail's Mortlach 70-Year-Old Speyside was sampled at a launch party in Edinburgh Castle, where it was escorted through the doors by pipers and a military escort.

"It matured for 70 years in the cask and that is what makes it the oldest whisky in the world," a spokeswoman for Gordon and MacPhail said.

The whisky was filled into its cask on October 15, 1938 by the grandfather of the company's managing directors David and Michael Urquhart.

There will only be 54 full-size bottles priced at STG10,000 ($A16,300), with another 162 smaller bottles on sale for STG2000 ($A3,200).

The limited edition malt was matured in a former sherry hogshead cask made from Spanish oak. It has been bottled in a "tear shaped, hand-blown" crystal decanter with a silver stopper.

Whisky taster Charles MacLean described the single malt as "a delicate, fresh, vital, fruity whisky, with unusual attributes of waxiness and smokiness".

"It's the oldest cask of whisky that, in my knowledge, has ever been bottled," he said. "The spirit and the wood have inter-reacted beautifully over this long period of time.