Highland Shhh, quite a few


November 10, 2022

Highland Shhh, quite a few…

So, secret Orkneys and consorts, of which there are hectolitres around. Shall we find a Scapa? In our wildest dreams, we would stumble upon a Stromness…

Whitlaw 9 yo 2013/2022 (59.2%, Signatory Vintage for La Maison du Whisky, Plume, first fill sherry, 671 bottles)

The name of this lovely series being plume, which means feather in French, we cannot not wonder whether this will be featherlight or not. Doubt it. Colour: dark red amber. Nose: some extremely chocolaty sherriness. Imagine we would be nosing a family pack of Mars bars. Indeed, caramel, chocolate, and that kind of mousse, plus black nougat, peanut brittle and halva. With water: red apples and a little pepper and carbon dust. Some heavy sour wine, old cellar, dunnage… Mouth (neat): it is a liquid Mars bar. Werther's Originals and black turon are playing around as well. With water: excellent, with once again, more earthiness and pepper. Finish: long, more savoury. Gravy, chocolate sauce… Leathery aftertaste. Comments: I'm not sure I would have said 'HP', as the sherry was really heavy, but it is a very fine dram. Impressive changes when you add water.
SGP:462 - 85 points.

Orkney 11 yo 2011/2022 (50%, Thompson Bros., 406 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: lovely, as expected, full of grist and chalk, wool and mud, apple peel and juice, seawater and crabs, and certainly some peat smoke, way in the back. With water: more apple peel and more seaweed, I would say. More raw wool too, right after sheep shearing on Orkney or Islay. Mouth (neat): more coastal, more mezcaly, peatier than your average HP, with green olives, smoke, oysters and capers. Disconcertingly excellent. With water: a pretty peaty batch. More salt, smoke, oysters and chalk than usual. Finish: same. Wonderful freshness and tightness. Comments: ah, there, I'm seeing that this baby was finished in an ex-Caol Ila cask, so it's in-cask blending. Nothing against that kind of short-circuit, as long as the end result is as good as this. I think Douglas Laing were having a 'Double-Barrel' that was a bit like this.
SGP:454 - 87 points.

Orkney islands 14 yo 2008/2022 (60.8%, Fadandel.dk, refill bourbon hogshead, cask #12, 321 bottles)

Colour: pale white wine. Nose: you couldn't do this with most Scottish malts, bottling some virtually unaged quasi-newmake and come up with something pretty lovely, albeit raw and rustic. Having said that, there isn't much happening but that may be the high ABV. Mind you, almost 61%. With water: not too sure… Chalk and porridge and mud and grist for sure, but beyond that… White cherries? Mouth (neat): sweet barley, some earth, some smoke, some lemon, some cider apples, some chilli. With water: we've finally unleashed the HPness, with tangerine skins, zests, citrusy honey, chalk… Finish: long, classic ueber-young HP. It takes it because it is HP. Comments: a good example of a make that may have needed reduction, down to 50 or even 46%, if I may. Forgot to say, I like it rather a lot.
SGP:462 - 83 points.

Orkney 15 yo 2007/2022 (59.7%, North Star Spirits, oloroso hogshead, 328 bottles)

I don't know why I cannot get Northern Lights by the band Renaissance out of my head whenever I try some whisky by North Star Spirits. Check it out, Annie Haslam has got one of the greatest voices in rock and roll. De nada. Colour: gold. Nose: it's a moderate, gentler sherry monster, rather on softer walnuts, walnut cake, pecan pie, mocha and espresso, black nougat… All that elegantly, almost diminuendo. With water: mud and grist, ground malt, earth, even game, mushrooms (horns of plenty) and Italian black cigars (Toscano ans such). Mouth (neat): a fighter on the palate, but that's the strength. Raw kirsch, bitter walnuts and leather… Well at least it's truly oloroso-y. With water: yeah, there, mud, earth, chewing your cigars, drinking walnut cordial, sipping extreme moka… Finish: as long as a day without bread, with a lot of black malt, black Belgian beer (I remember a Rochefort)… Comments: huge. Love it but it is a little unromantic (wha-a-at?) And I agree Renaissance could get a little schmaltzy.
SGP:362 - 89 points.

Secret Orkney 2007/2022 (50.8%, Michiel Wigman, They Inspired)

Sukhinder Sing on the label here, while another one bearing a much lousier so-called whisky personality whom I know only too well, a Glentauchers, came out at the very same time. Go for Sukhinder! Colour: light gold. Nose: back to the purer, more crystalline ones, at times you could almost believe they've used fresh cane juice. Sea breeze, beach sand, kelp… It is a pretty maritime HP. With water: plastics and varnishes, Woolite, baker's yeast, porridge, in short, an all-natural HP. Mouth (neat): class, lemons, zests, menthol, gentian, barley, samphires… With water: better yet, a tad rounder, more candied, with zests, angelica, dried pears… Finish: medium to long, with more smoke, straight peat, smoked kippers… Did we move to Islay? Comments: awesome, if a little swirling and fluttering here and there. Something may have happened prior to bottling.
SGP:452 - 88 points.

Orkney Islands 15 yo 2007/2022 (52.3%, Maltbarn for 15th anniversary of EPower, Japan, bourbon cask, 143 bottles)

There's a constant, albeit thin stream of great bottlings stemming from Maltbarn. Quality over quantity, I would suppose (well, that's what I've noticed). Colour: white wine. Nose: pure, crystalline, coastal, peely, paraffiny HP. The ones we like best, unless we're talking old glories. With water: holy Molly! A Chinese laundry and a lot of plaster. Mouth (neat): salt, lime juice, cider apples, seawater, olive brine, wax and, err, well, mezcal (insert Carlos Santana's rendition of A Whiter Shade Of Pale here – another earworm). With water: perfect, as long as you wouldn't add too much water. Best friend, worst enemy, remember. Gets saltier. Finish: long, salty, chiselled, calling for a plate of oysters. Comments: a bladey, unsexy, austere HP, the ones we like best. But remember, personal taste etcetera.
SGP:362 - 90 points.

Orkney Single Malt 13 yo 2007/2020 (51.3%, Whisky-Fässle, hogshead)

Only ducks and no duds, that could be Whisky-Fässle's motto. Our favourite ducks in the business. Colour: white wine. Nose: immediate. That honey, those herbs, this citrus. This will be quick. With water: wool, grist, chalk, granny smith, white peaches, heather. Mouth (neat): nothing to argue about. Lemons, chalk, green apples, paraffin… With water: some salt, lemon, green apples, a little smoke, oysters… In truth this is one of the saltiest HPs we've tried this week. And we've tried many. Finish: rather long, clean, salty… Comments: but whether duck or goose, what a distillate! Also one of the best.
SGP:452 - 89 points.

A Secret Orkney 16 yo 2006/2022 (48.2%, Wu Dram Clan, bourbon hogshead, 150 bottles)

Colour: white wine. Nose: one of the most fermentary ones, all on leaven, fresh bread, baker's yeast, new sweater, ink, drawing gum, linseed oil and new Tesla. I agree I need to apologise, new Porsche would be better, but there's much less plastic in Porsches. With water: closes down. No waterz please. Mouth (neat): tight, citrus-led, pretty hoppy, pungent. With water: No waterz please. Finish: rather long, citrusy, salty and herbal. Comments: this one was hard to control. Another case of the whisky being the boss, I mean, f***!. Tough baby that's playing it close to the vest.
SGP:362 - 87 points.

They're all excellent, the spirit speaks out, only whacky red wine casks or other winey oddities for lazy distillers marketers could put an end to this rather perfect stroll.

Orkney 16 yo 2006/2022 (57.1%, Thompson Bros. for Milroy's of Soho, refill hogshead, 280 bottles)

Wallace and Jack's Milroy's of Soho was, and still is the seminal place for whisky in London. I mean, whenever we used to fly to London, and instead of the British Museum or Harrod's, we would have first taken a black cab to Milroy's (and, let's be honest, to the nearby Vintage House). Colour: white wine. Nose: more austere, paraffiny, grassy, leafy HP. Certainly not the easiest this far. With water: yeast, dough, grist, porridge. Elementary HP. Mouth (neat): no, sweeter, fruitier, very waxy, still a little brutal but that's the strength. With water: success, we've unleashed plums. Finish: rather long, grassy, with a saltier aftertaste. Comments: one of those austere HPs. We love them at WF Towerz, but we agree they're not consensual at all. They're very tough babies, be warned.
SGP:362 - 87 points.

Orkney 16 yo 2006/2022 (57.1%, Orkney Sponge, refill hogshead, 342 bottles)Orkney 16 yo 2006/2022 (57.1%, Orkney Sponge, refill hogshead, 342 bottles)

Orkney 16 yo 2006/2022 (57.1%, Orkney Sponge, refill hogshead, 342 bottles)

The Whisky Sponge on Orkney. Colour: light gold. Nose: panettone, dough, crushed banana, grist, fresh white bread, strawberry yoghurt. Strawberries are playing a rather interlope game with malt whisky, just wander around Port Ellen Maltings and you'll notice. With water: white toasts. It wouldn't really expand; water may be superfluous here. Mouth (neat): powerful, citrusy, pleasantly bitter, hoppy, peppery. With water: back to great HPness, with citrons, grist, chalk, doughs, and salty elements. Peppered langoustines, perhaps? (although that would lead to murder and desolation). Finish: long, salty, doughy; this one too is an HP that's got its eyes on the Isle of Islay. Comments: the huge saltiness is impressive. Quite possibly one of the saltiest Highland Parks we've tried this far.
SGP:462 - 88 points.

Further down the vintages…

Secret Orkney Distillery 17 yo 2004/2022 (49.4%, Whisky Nerds, butt, cask #13, 248 bottles)

Secret Orkney Distillery 17 yo 2004/2022 (49.4%, Whisky Nerds, butt, cask #13, 248 bottles)
Isn't all this becoming silly? I mean, a secret Orkney Distillery? Something by Putin? Loukachenko? Kim Jong-un? King Charles III? Colour: gold. Nose: another pretty austere one, grassy, on fern, parsley, agave juice, grapefruit skin… With water: there, raw wool, chalk and porridge. And waxed paper, and cold candles. Mouth (neat): grassy and waxy, salty, peppery, really big. With water: dry, slightly cardboardy, gristy, faintly muddy. Finish: medium, dry, slightly cardboardy, with strawberries in the aftertaste (again!) Comments: all right, all fine, close to our nature.
SGP:462 - 87 points.

A last one please, down to the roaring nineties…

An Orkney 21 yo 1999/2021 (53%, The Whisky Agency for Whisky Picnic Bar Taiwan, bourbon hogshead, cask #7033, 242 bottles)

A Lorraine Cross on a whisky label, why wouldn't we applaud? Colour: light gold. Nose: there's this perfect moment when ripe bananas would chime in, together with a high-pitched lemonness. As we're rather into musical analogies, let's say stuff by the band Pavlov's Dog. Under 60? Check that. Whaff. With water: not quite worth it, water doesn't add anything to this already great combination. Mouth (neat): so very good, stunningly leafy, teaish, spicy, herbal… But indeed it needs water now. With water: yeah good, very elegant, with small herbs, even smaller berries and fruits, resins, waxes… Finish: long, piney, grassier, austere, intellectual (wie bitte?) Comments: yeah, it's an intellectual Highland Park, somewhere between Wittgenstein and Nietzsche (wie bitte?)
SGP:462 - 88 points.

Wait, couldn't we have a very last one, since we're here?

Orkney 22 yo 1999/2022 (47%, Thompson Bros. for Bar Shamrock and Heather Honey, Japan, refill hogshead, 188 bottles)

I truly admire these young folks, the Thompsons, the Sponge, Jonny and others, as only ten years ago, nobody up there in Scotchland used to even remotely care about anything related to Scotch whisky. To our amazement, everything was only about vulgar, multinational-wide, nasty, inelegant, dirty, stinky, no-morals business. But things they are changing… Colour: white wine. Nose: candle smoke, sunflower oil, baguette (that's proper bread, no?) plus grapefruits and just fresh-mown lawn. Kelp on the beach and damp plaster. Mouth: a tad difficult, salty, very fermentary, peppery, lemony, grassy, tough… And perfect. You just have to like them extremely grassy, peppery, rooty, tough, Jansenist, almost masochistic and barely explainable. No surprise that some friends in glorious Japan would have selected this very tough baby. Finish: yeah, as I said. Comments: who said whiskies had to be easy and even (sometimes) woreish?
SGP:262 - 88 points.

Pretty much grouped fire this trime again - no surprise. As we used to say, CU.

Oh by the way, just noticed that that one was my 18,000th whisky review. Not that that's very important, is it. -S.