The anticipation for this whisky was huge during it's initial release in Europe, but all went quiet before it landed in Australia - sort of! This is an official bottling of Highland Park that is aimed at the enthusiast, and it's great to see.
There was a lot of excitement about this whisky when it was first released. It is one of the few current official bottlings of Orkney's Highland Park that is bottled at cask strength, and also one of the few that is actually declared on the packaging to be non-chill filtered. As is always the case, particularly over the last 18-months or so, this whisky took a long time to first appear in Australia, to the point where it was basically forgotten about. And as is sometimes the case, the first appearance was by way of parallel importation by an independent bottle shop, rather than the official importer & distributor. While only a small amount of this whisky was parallel imported by Melbourne's Nicks Wine Merchants, the demand down under was enough for them to sell out extremely quickly to eager fans of the distillery. Apparently there is official stock arriving in the coming months from the official importers, but that stock is going to be exclusive to one of Australia's whisky subscription services, where subscribers are automatically sent a bottle or sample/s of a particular whisky every month that is charged to their credit cards via direct debit, unless they manually "opt out" before a set cut-off date. Personally I've never liked this sort of system for any product or service, having to manually decline a purchase before you are automatically charged for it, rather than researching, finding and purchasing a product on your own accord. But I certainly seem to be in the minority there since these whisky subscription companies have become very popular in a relatively short period of time, and they now have the buying power to rival or override some of the largest drinks retailers, not to mention the combined smaller retailers and whisky specialists, here in Australia.
Outside of the myriad of independent bottlings of Highland Park, these days more commonly named as the anonymous but obvious "An Orkney Distillery", cask strength official versions of Highland Park are very difficult to come by. Even the likes of the 25, 30, 40 and 50-year old official bottlings are not bottled at cask strength, and if memory serves the last appearance of a cask strength HP was the "Dark" and "Light" pair of 17-year old bottlings from a few years ago (although they weren't officially declared as being cask strength), with the exception of the Australian exclusive that was named after & bottled for the Mjolner restaurants/bars in Sydney & Melbourne (previously reviewed here). Those were limited releases though, whereas this new non-age statement cask strength whisky is the first to be part of the core range. Yes, this is not a limited release, but a core range bottling, due to be released in annual batches that we can safely assume are fairly large. The first batch that we're looking at today was bottled at a hefty 63.3% ABV, while the second batch has already been announced and is soon to be released in Europe at 63.9% ABV. Both batches have been "predominantly" matured in sherry seasoned American oak casks, so I'd assume the remainder of the mix were refill casks. I'm also assuming they've used the distillery's standard 80/20 ratio of commercially sourced unpeated malt to the in-house floor-malted and lightly peated barley that uses Orkney's local floral, heathery peat. Obviously given those massive bottling strengths these casks are not being filled at what was once the Scotch whisky industry standard filling strength of 63.5%, and they're also going to be relatively young whiskies, but that's fine - we enthusiasts want the distillery character and spirit character to show through in this sort of single malt, and I'm thinking that's precisely what we're going to get here. As mentioned above this is also one of the few Highland Park official bottlings that is clearly stated to be non-chill filtered, which is printed right there on the packaging and is great to see.
For years now, fans of Highland Park have been crying out for the distillery to give them higher strength, non-chill filtration and natural colour - although they don't add e150 caramel colouring to any of their whiskies. Those three requirements are the whisky enthusiast trifecta, and for a long time there have been very, very few Highland Park official bottlings that ticked all three boxes, let alone a reasonably affordable one that is part of the core range. Another point that fans of the distillery have been crying out for was for the Viking-heavy marketing themes (such as the Viking Legends series, reviewed here) to be dialled back. We get that the distillery is proud of it's Orkney location and the history of the islands, but the Norse-themed marketing was getting very thick, very cheesy and downright off-putting, particularly when it came to the names of certain whiskies and the huge range of releases where very little (if any) factual information was provided about the liquid itself in exchange for paragraphs about some legend or that myth that had no connection to the whisky in the bottle. So it's fantastic to see the distillery listening to their fans and reacting to the market demand by releasing a cask strength, non-chill filtered and more simply-packaged & presented whisky that is aimed squarely at the enthusiasts. Heavier on the whisky, lighter on the Vikings. Excellent! It may have taken them a while to get there, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. You could even say that with this new addition the distillery owners are finally taking on some of the independent bottlers of their own whisky at their own game. At such a whopping ABV this Cask Strength Highland Park is likely to be quite intense without water, but I don't typically add water for these reviews so the whiskies are on an even playing field, and I'll be doing the same here. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who grabbed a bottle from the parallel importer. Interestingly I'm yet to see any Australian social media posts or whisky chatter about it, despite that initial release happening months ago, which is unusual. Let's see how it goes!
"Predominantly" matured in sherry seasoned American oak casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.
Colour: Mid-amber.
Nose: The ABV is there, but it settles down quickly. Waxy & floral with dried fruit, roasted nuts and pot purri (perfumed dried flowers) that is heavy on the greenery - or, if you prefer, dried heather! Chestnuts, warm thin toffee sauce and a touch of dry, grassy smoke. Burnt orange peel, dried apricots and a touch of heather honey further on.
Texture: Medium weight. Big & brash, a touch aggressive and very warming, but not harsh. Definitely smokier than your average Highland Park.
Taste: More roasted chestnut, orange peel and apricot with that dry herbal/grassy smoke and runny toffee sauce. The raw alcohol is there again but the other notes arrive first, rather than the spirit-y heat being front & centre, so it works well.
Finish: Medium length. A touch raw and very warming, with the alcohol still attacking the tongue. Behind that is a bit of tobacco and leather, burnt orange peel and the dried fruit. Floral, waxy notes are trying to break through but it's raw alcohol and grassy smoke that dominate the finish.
Score: 2.5 out of 5.
Notes: The nose is the highlight here, without a doubt. Everywhere else it's quite aggressive and a bit hot, and I definitely get the impression it's not designed for neat consumption. I've had many, many higher ABV young whiskies that were far more tame without water, but then I've also had a couple that were hotter despite being lower in strength and also (presumably) older. Provided you're used to cask strength whiskies this Highland Park will work for you, but if I was drinking it rather than reviewing it I'd certainly be adding water - in fact I did, post-review, for reference. As you'd expect a few drops of water calms it down and lengthens the finish, and it also releases more sweetness and vanilla, plus adding some creaminess to the texture. But it's still aggressive & a touch raw, and it still attacks the roof of the mouth, particularly through the finish. If I was to review this whisky with water added it would probably gain half a point, but that wouldn't be fair, so I haven't.
The Highland Park distillery character is still here, as is the sherry cask influence but in a relatively subtle & balanced way - do not go looking for one of those "sherry bombs" here, that's not what Highland Park do, and it's no bad thing either. Personally, I would've preferred that they reduced this to 55% or even 50% and bottled it as a "Batch Strength" rather than release it at it's full fury. Tamdhu, Glen Grant and others have done that and seems to work fine. I have to wonder what ABV Highland Park are filling these casks at, surely it would have to be over 70%. Purely an opinion, but maybe that's why we haven't seen a young cask strength official bottling from the distillery before, possibly because they don't lose enough ABV or volatiles to the angels or the wood at these younger ages. Although countless independent bottlers don't seem to have any issue with that and release cask strength Highland Parks - or rather "Orkneys" - all the time. Still, this is a good step and it's great to see the distillery listening to, and appeasing, it's thirsty fans.
Cheers!
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