Whisky : Highland Park 15 Year SMWS 4.225 “A crunchy brunch”

Country/Region : Scotland/Islands

ABV : 60.6%

Cask : Refill Sherry Butt

Age: 15 Years (Distilled Aug. 20, 2001)

Tasting : Neat in a Glencairn @ Home

Nose : Honey, tar, and coal soot give this dram a sweet burnt opening.  There is a bit of lovely salty funk, like a smoked gouda or gorgonzola cheese, tide pools, as well as some sweet mesquite wood smoke.  Faint sherry funk along with black vinegar round out a lovely complex nose.

Palate : Characteristic Highland Park brine and smoke dominate the palate.  It is less the usual coal fired steamship crossing the Atlantic, than it is an oil fire burning on waters churning around a shipwreck.  The cheese funk of the nose comes through as a salty parmesan crisp.  A bit of balsamic and honey roasted vegetables round out some sweeter notes.

Finish :  Lingering peppers— ghost pepper infused honey.

Score : 5

Mental Image : Cheese plate on a shipwreck.

Something Better : “Unnamed Orkney” 17Y Exclusive Malts (richer, similar maritime profile, longer finish)

Something Similar : Compass Box No Name 1st Ed. (similar brine and salty cheese funk, less smoke)

Something Worse : Highland Park 18Y (less intense, less complex, similar maritime elements)

Notes : I picked this out of a lineup based on the weird name and the fact that I was hankering for something with a big of peat.  This was not quite the peat bomb I craved, but I knew it was as close I was likely to come.  

The nose on this was excellent— I love funky cheese notes— it was salty with the perfect hint of sherry rich umami.  The vinegar and burning oil provided a solid balance between the peat and sherry.  This dram highlights the subtle virtues of a refill sherry cask.  The sherry influence works in the background, complimenting the peat, rather than running roughshod over it.  It is an absolute joy to drink cask strength Highland Park and a tragedy that the distillery provides so few options to do so.

When I tried the standard 12 and 18 year expressions I was disappointed.  While they were quality drams, they lacked the intensity and rich flavor profiles I was expecting from such a celebrated distillery.  My disappointment, in combination with an inability to make sense of the intersection between flavor profiles and Norse iconography/mythology, turned me off Highland Park for a good while.

I have been fortunate to have the chance to reappraise my feelings on Highland Park with a couple of excellent independently bottled single casks.  While I would still love to find an official distillery single cask expression— something which they have begun to offer through travel retail outlets— I am happy to know that the richness and depth of maritime flavors I thought were a bit lacking in the 12 or 18 can be found in spades as long as one is willing to spring for an independent bottling.