Why is this whisky an outlier? Because rather than the usual Highland Park maturation method of various types of Oloroso sherry cask (American or European oak, first-fill or refill etc.), Full Volume has been matured only in first-fill ex-bourbon casks. That might put some old-school Highland Park fans off, but it shouldn't, because this expression has been bottled at a higher strength than the vast majority of their official bottlings, which tend to be 40% or 43% ABV. Despite the name though, Full Volume has not been bottled at cask strength, but rather at the odd strength of 47.2%. So not really full volume, just a higher volume than normal! And although this whisky has been chill filtered, the details on the side of the outer box clearly state that it was filtered at 4 degrees Celsius, which is the upper limit for chill filtration. When was the last time you saw a distillery quote the temperature that a whisky was chilled down to prior to filtering? It certainly doesn't happen very often! With different temperatures and other factors like the grade of filter (fine or coarse) and pressure used, determining how much of the oils, fats & proteins are actually stripped from the whisky during chill filtration, this whisky is essentially less chill filtered than most chill filtered whiskies. But I do have to ask, since this whisky was bottled at over 46%, why bother chill filtering it at all? Why not just barrier filter it, keeping it a more natural product? Particularly when a few of Highland Park's many limited releases are already non-chill filtered. When a large number of distilleries are bottling most or all of their products without chill filtration these days, it seems an odd choice. Especially for a whisky named 'Full Volume'.
Speaking of which, that name is actually a reference to the electric instrument musician's skill at tweaking an amplifier and equaliser to avoid distortion, and achieve the desired tone and volume. Highland Park have drawn the comparison between this and the skill of their master blender when creating a whisky, and as you can see below they've gone all out with that theme on the whisky's packaging. The outer box represents an amplifier and equaliser, and there's even a set of tuning knobs on one side that are meant to give an idea of this whisky's profile, including a volume knob - also found on the bottle's front label - that is turned up to 11 in a nod to Spinal Tap (but it's not cask strength, remember). Something else that is a bit strange is a few of the details that are printed on the other side of that outer box. There you'll find information like the exclusive use of first-fill bourbon casks, and the sizes of those casks (200-litre barrels and 250-litre hogsheads), but also extra and rather unusual details like the exact number of casks in the vatting (a not insignificant 481), the exact filling dates of those casks (6 different days in mid-1999), and that those casks were "filled at strengths of between 63.6% and 63.7%". Kudos for adding more information than usual, but I really don't see why that's relevant, when the vast majority of whisky is filled into casks at 63.5%, and like I've mentioned once or twice already this isn't a cask strength whisky, so the filling strength back in 1999 has very little bearing on the final product. Maybe I'm nitpicking here but it does seem like an odd thing to mention, particularly right there on the side of the box! Likewise that number of casks, it's not exactly a small figure and means that this limited release can't really be that limited after all. Particularly since it was bottled two years ago and is still easy to source. But luckily the packaging does also state that this whisky is naturally coloured, and while this Highland Park doesn't exactly have an age statement, it does have a year of distillation, 1999, and a year of bottling, 2017, making this a 17-18 year old whisky.
Before we get into the whisky itself, let's have a quick recap on Highland Park. Owned by the Edrington group, the distillery is located in Kirkwall, on the 'mainland' of the Orkney islands north of the Scottish mainland, and has been there since 1798, although it's first license wasn't granted until 1826. They floor-malt a portion of their barley, and that portion is peated to around 20 ppm with local peat from Hobbister Moor on Orkney, which is largely comprised of heather. That floor-malted peated barley is then mixed with externally-sourced un-peated barley, usually at a mix of around 20% peated and 80% un-peated. After double-distillation in their four stills the distillery fills the majority of their 2.5 million litre annual output into Oloroso sherry-seasoned casks, with the rest going into ex-bourbon and a few other types. They also marry, or rest, each new vatting for at least a month before bottling, to allow the whiskies to "harmonise". I can't find any information on what vessel that happens in, so I'd presume it to be stainless steel vats, which of course is no bad thing for that purpose. Highland Park produce a massive range of expressions, and on their website you'll currently find a frankly ridiculous 39 different bottlings listed as their current range of single malts. Naturally some of those are old vintage bottlings, plus the standard core range of the 12 and 18-year olds, but there are also a huge number of non-age statement, marketing-heavy, viking-themed expressions with very little real information published that are, honestly, a little tiresome. In fact they're a little hard to keep up with, even in the age of the internet and social media. Making them even harder to keep up with is the fact that many of those are also travel retail (duty free) exclusive and/or are only sold in certain countries or regions, and on that note Full Volume was actually exclusive to the US when first launched, and is only sold in travel retail in Australia, and has only been available there for a year or so. It's priced at $129 AUD, which is quite reasonable for a 17-18 year old limited release whisky at a decent strength, but I can't help but wish that it was more widely available for those who don't frequently travel overseas. I know that most of the above sounds a little negative or even cynical, which is not really intentional, I'm just calling it as I see it. I'm still a fan of Highland Park's work, particularly when bottled at cask strength. But the main thing of course is that this is a tasty and good value whisky. So let's find out, shall we?
Distilled 1999, bottled 2017. Fully matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks, lightly peated. Chill filtered at 4 degrees, natural colour. Travel exclusive in Australia.
Colour: Semi-pale gold.
Nose: Very nice! Vanilla custard, russian fudge (lighter style sweet fudge), lots of lemon peel and some dried apricot. That dry heathery peat is there, like burnt herbs, and a subtle hint of heather honey as well. Some lightly spicy charred wood (cinnamon & pepper), and a couple of dried apples in the distance.
Texture: Medium weight. Richly flavoured with a generous pinch of pepper, lightly waxy.
Taste: More wood spice and more dry heather-y peat, some beeswax (natural honeycomb with the honey drained out), and a bit of orange. Drier than I would've guessed from the nose, which wasn't massively sweet either in the scheme of things (not a criticism by any means). More burnt herbs (that peat showing itself again), and more lemon peel, plus that vanilla but it's vanilla paste here, and it's definitely drier to boot.
Finish: Medium length. More black pepper, vanilla paste, still-smoking burnt herbs and that floral heathery peat. But it's soft overall once that pepper note subsides, with more beeswax, fudge and lemon peel.
Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Notes: Quite a tasty dram this! And definitely one of the best official bottlings of Highland Park that I've tasted in recent times. Plenty of flavour, and more peat is evident than in most HPs, particularly at this age level, which I'd say would be down to the ex-bourbon casks being a little less dominant than the sherry-seasoned ones that are HP's modus operandi (M.O.), and also the higher bottling strength. I'm digging that vanilla, lemon, heather & pepper combo too, it works very well and those flavours are nicely balanced, which of course is the whole premise behind this whisky, showing off the balancing skills of the blenders. And all the marketing and other little niggles aside, I think it does achieve that.
I can't help but wonder what this whisky would've been like at it's actual full volume (cask strength and completely non-chill filtered), but that would've put the price up, and it's pretty reasonable at the $129 AUD mark. Particularly when you consider that the asking price for the standard Highland Park 18-year old, which is only bottled at 43%, is $200-250 AUD these days. Which despite being a nice whisky is one of the most expensive 18-year old core range / standard official bottlings on the market at the moment. But then if Full Volume had been released to the general market rather than travel retail, that price would probably have increased. On the flip-side that doesn't make it particularly easy to get hold of a bottle, so it's a bit of a Catch-22. Definitely worth grabbing a bottle when you're next going through an international airport, though!
Cheers!
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