Liquid Fudge in a Bottle

We have just landed ourselves a new release from Scotland’s most northerly distillery, Highland Park. The distillery is situated on the Orkney Islands, which is a group of seventy islands that lie halfway between Scotland and Norway.

Highland Park whiskies are known for their balance. All components of the whisky meld together where the heather, the sweetness and the gentle peat are never competing with each other. If you are not familiar with Highland Park then may I suggest that you become acquainted sooner rather than later?

The Highland Park 12 year old is a good place to start, fresh and lively with faint whiffs of peat on the nose. The fantastic Highland Park 18 year old is probably one of the most highly regarded and rated whiskies available. F. Paul Pacult of the ‘Spirit Journal’ has named it as Best Spirit of the World. Big, luscious, light peat and with a heather honey sweetness, this whisky makes it onto my ‘Bucket List’ of single malt Scotch.

And now for the new kid. The Highland Park 15 year old has arrived for the first time to the US. Vine & Table’s Whiskey Explorer Club had the opportunity to sample it at our recent ‘Tour of the Islands’ meet-up. The general consensus was that it was different from both the twelve and eighteen year olds. However that was not a bad thing. On the contrary, it received high marks and praise from the group. The late great whisky writer Michael Jackson couldn’t have put it better, “Great balance between caramelized fruit, honey, and heathery smoke. Mouth-filling. Fudge. Malt.”

Liquid fudge in a bottle, now that’s definitely not such a bad thing!

Slainte,

Denis