AD Rattray Orkney 18 Year Old Single Cask Whisky Review!

Another anonymous Highland Park from an independent bottler - as many have said, they're never Scapa, so that only leaves one other distillery in Orkney! Some of these bottlings can be fantastic though, and the anonymity can - on some occasions - keep the pricing more reasonable in comparison.  

This bottle was a bit of an impulse buy for me, and that is not how I usually do things. Something about it caught my eye, being a cask strength single cask of Highland Park at a reasonable $199 AUD, from an independent bottler that I haven't had much experience with, and promising to be a more spirit-driven example of Orkney's main distillery since it was from a refill hogshead. Apologies to Pernod Ricard's Scapa Distillery, but we rarely see any of their whisky in Australia - there's still no local sign of the "new" official bottlings which have been available in Europe for over 15-months now - and with the amount of independently bottled unnamed Highland Park single malts around you'd be easily forgiven for forgetting that Scapa even exists. Those rebranded & relaunched official bottlings of Scapa did receive some good reviews and a little attention online, but apart from one fantastic 19-year old single cask official bottling that was bottled for The Whisky Exchange - which was way too expensive at roughly $500 AUD plus shipping and duties - I've personally never had a Scapa that was memorable. And that's including the couple of independent bottlings of Scapa that I've tasted, which I believe were from Gordon & MacPhail. On paper the distillery sounds interesting, using a Lomond still as its wash still, albeit with the plates removed from the neck, and using a purifier on the spirit still. So hopefully if/when those newer official bottlings arrive in Australia that situation changes for the better and Scapa's slice of the pie gets a little larger, and whisky enthusiasts will be reminded that there's more than one distillery on Orkney!

The reason that there are so many unnamed Orkney single malts around from the independent bottlers is that most of these have come from cask brokers, and Highland Park does not want these casks wearing the distillery name. You'd think they'd be too busy coming up with new spins on the tired old Viking marketing spiels or quietly bumping up their pricing in line with packaging updates to worry about such things, but apparently not! This is of course Edrington, the same company behind Macallan and Glenrothes, and they don't often let those names appear on independent bottlings either. The old spin on the rationale here was that the distilleries sold off casks that didn't quite fit the flavour profiles required by their blending customers and/or their own proprietary blends, so they didn't want the distillery name being associated with those different flavour profiles. But these days we can safely say that it's more about brand protection & marketing since you don't want an independent bottling out there with equal or better quality than your (generally) more expensive official bottling. Especially if that official bottling has some ridiculously overdone packaging and the "luxury goods" price tag to match. That's enough ranting for now...

Orkney's Highland Park produces lightly peated malt whisky, consisting of roughly 20% peated barley and 80% unpeated barley, where the peated component is floor-malted at the distillery using local peat and measures in at 20 ppm on the freshly malted barley, whereas the unpeated malt is purchased commercially and shipped to the distillery. The distillery has an annual capacity of over 2.5-million litres of spirit through four pot stills, and is owned by Edrington who also own Macallan and Glenrothes. After years of heavy Viking-themed marketing and "luxury" positioning they do seem to have calmed down a touch, but most whisky lovers are still turning to the independent bottlers for their Highland Park fixes. This particular independent bottling is from A.D. Rattray, one of the lesser known indy bottlers, and as far as I'm aware the company doesn't have an official Australian importer. The company's more recognisable brands would be the Cask Islay and Cask Speyside anonymous single malts, and the Stronachie bottlings of unnamed Benrinnes. Rattray was originally founded in 1868 as a grocery store, when like many of the blenders & independent bottlers in Scotland they began blending and bottling their own whiskies for their customers. The company eventually wound up under the ownership of the Morrison family who owned Islay's Bowmore Distillery, Highland distillery Glen Garioch, and Lowland distillery Auchentoshan for a few decades, before they were sold in the early 1990s to current owners Suntory. The Morrison family launched the A.D. Rattray "Cask Collection" independent bottlings in 2004, and in 2017 opened Clydeside Distillery in Glasgow, who's inaugural single malt release hit the shelves back in 2021. 

This single cask of unnamed Orkney single malt is from that Cask Collection. It was distilled in April 2006, fully matured in a single ex-bourbon hogshead (250-litre cask), and bottled in December 2024 at a cask strength of 58.4% ABV. Cask (lucky) number #13 yielded 288 bottles, and there's no chill filtration or added colouring to be found here. Rattray do produce a core range batch product named Cask Orkney 18-year old which is bottled at 46%, not to be confused with a cask strength single cask. Let's see if this impulse buy has paid off!

A.D. Rattray Orkney 18-Year Old, Single Cask, 58.4%. Orkney, Scotland.

Unnamed Highland Park, distilled 20/4/2006, single ex-bourbon hogshead, bottled 20/12/2024. Cask #13, 288 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Sharp citrus, biscuity malt, runny honey. Slightly nippy (alcohol nip) initially. Lemon & lime drops (hard-boiled lollies / confectionary), burnt leafy herbs, soft ashy wood smoke. With time it softens and gains milk bottle lollies (chewy vanilla lollies) and some marzipan. Quite maritime too, oyster shells, and salt-laden driftwood. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, malty, slightly creamy. No heat. 

Taste: Malty, lemony, lightly herbal & earthy. Lemon oil, touch of sea salt, marzipan again, and those burning herbs on a wood fire. Hints of aniseed, milk chocolate, and sharper citrus with lemon & lime drops (lollies) and a touch of grapefruit rind. 

Finish: Long length. Aniseed, sea salt, and lemon curd. Biscuity malted barley, flaky pie crust. Some lime zest and oyster shells to round things off. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Nice example of the dryer, more austere, unadulterated side of Highland Park that never shows up in official bottlings, but is fairly common in spirit-driven refill cask independent bottlings that have a decent amount of age to them. Loads of citrus, malted barley, and burning herbs. Quite maritime too, which again rarely shows in official bottlings but does on occasion in independent bottlings. We're talking subtle mineral & coastal touches here, nothing like an Islay or Talisker level of salt or seawater. This 18-year old Orkney may not be the most complex dram around, but it's a satisfying one, and offers good value at $199 AUD for a cask strength single cask. I'm still yet to have a Highland Park, official or independent, that has really "wowed" me, with one delicious independent bottling from the late 70s being my standout example so far. But it's nice to see the HP spirit shown in its natural light without makeup, and without assertive casks getting in the way. Long live the independent bottlers!

Cheers!