Whisky: Highland Park 12 Year (2006) Cask 1644 for World of Whiskies Heathrow

Country/Region: Scotland/Islands

ABV: 64.6%

Cask: First Fill American Oak Sherry Puncheon

Age: 12 Years (Distilled 2006, Bottled 2018)

Nose: Big and sherried with rum baba cake, figs, raisins, sherry funk with diesel, cream cheese, and a touch of lactic yogurt and honey, wispy smoke.

Palate: Full-bodied and thick, creamy yogurt or soft cheese, sweet spices, licorice, orange, pepper, tar, heather, petrol, mellow smoke.

Finish: Long and lingering with dried fruits, spices, and a kiss of salty smoke.

Score: 7-8 (85)

Mental Image: Engineering Fiesta in the Silo

Narrative & Notes: Thickly sherried and big cask-driven notes of rum baba cake, figs, raisins, and black cherry. Further in was plenty of sherry funk between diesel, dirty shop rags, creamy cheese, and a touch of yogurt— blue cheese, honey, and figs on dark bread?  Full-bodied on the palate, the malt was thick and oily with creamy notes of yogurt and soft cheese up against big sweet spices: licorice, orange peel, peppercorns, and cardamon. Salty at times with charred wood, beach tar, heather, and a touch of something floral beyond hints of petrol.  The finish was very long with dried fruits, spices, and a kiss of salty smoke.

I initially tried this blind with our local whisky club as part of a blind face-off in which one member put their bottle-selecting skills against a trio of single casks selected by Neil Patrick Harris for SMWS. The only rule was that he stick to a similar budget as the SMWS series.

This was the final bottle in the lineup, and based on the heavy sherry maturation I knew it was not one of the bottles that NPH had selected with SMWS. The occasionally creamy lactic elements that inserted themselves in the aroma and briefly on the palate led me to guess this was a teenage Bruichladdich. I was wrong.

The bottle ranked in the top three for the evening, and quite a few people ranked it as their favorite or second favorite. I was impressed then, and I thought it was still a brilliant whisky when I poured it again a month later.