Secret Orkneys and Highland Park


July 31, 2025

Secret Orkneys and Highland Park

We're not in a position here to confirm with complete certainty that it's the same thing, are we. However, the difference between Scapa and Highland Park isn't all that hard to spot. Let's get into it and let’s start by going to Frankfurt — but not Frankfurt, Kentucky, right?

St Magnus in Kirkwall, Britain's most northerly cathedral (AI slop)

Orkney Single Malt 18 yo 2006/2024 (53.2%, Whisky Spirits for Whisky Time Frankfurt 2025)

With the city of Frankfurt printed upside down on the label! Thankfully, the distillery remains the right way up. Colour: white wine. Nose: unmistakable, with those maritime and mineral tones, followed by tart apples, lemon and olive oil we so adore yet which tend to elude the official expressions. With water: soot and paraffin, then brand new engine oil. Mouth (neat): squarely on the hallowed HPCBBNS axis (HP -> Clynelish -> Benromach -> Ben Nevis -> Springbank). Immensely saline! With water: how utterly delightful! Pure waxes, lemons, green apples and seawater. Finish: more of the same, and for a good while at that. Comments: it starts with a bang.
SGP:462 - 90 points.

Orkney 11 yo 2013/2025 (63.6%, Lady of the Glen, 1st fill bourbon, cask #10001, 203 bottles)

They say it’s cask strength, good to know, knowing that unless I’m wrong, HP fill at 63.5% vol., which means we’ve earned some extra-0.1% within eleven years! Colour: white wine. Nose: a fairly similar style, though leaning more towards yellow fruits and pollen, with fewer coastal and mineral elements, but instead we do find some virgin wool. A few touches of vanilla and coconut, almost certainly from the 1st fill bourbon cask. With water: orange peel, or rather mandarin zest. Mouth (neat): straight into acidic fruits, fresh rhubarb, lemon, not-very-ripe gooseberry, then a touch of liquorice and vanilla, though the coconut is nowhere to be found this time. In fact, we shall not complain. With water: veering back towards the classic profile, coastal and mineral. Excellent. Finish: long, with the arrival of green pepper, waxes and hints of indeterminate petroly derivatives. The White House might be able to enlighten us… Comments: performs extremely well following the quite superlative 18-year-old from Frankfurt.
SGP:562 - 88 points.

Update: HP seem to actually fill at some unusual 69.5% vol. (Thanks, Tim)

Orkney (HP) 14 yo 2010/2024 ‘Edition #30’ (57.1%, Signatory Vintage, 100 Proof, 1st fill oloroso sherry butt)

I dare say the ‘HP’ on the label might stand for more than just ‘high potential’. Colour: amber. Nose: the typical sherry of this series, with roasted nuts and chocolate, hints of truffle, meatball soup, Maggi seasoning, toffee… With water: mushrooms and ferns, but above all lashings of chocolate fudge, even edging towards mole sauce. Mouth (neat): a marked oloroso sherry style, dry yet brimming with orange liqueur, heaps of black pepper and earth, and a few stouty touches. With water: in the same vein but increasingly dominated by old walnuts, while the salty edge becomes more pronounced too. Finish: long, on leek and chicken soup, grated dark chocolate and still plenty of pepper. Comments: very good, even if we've drifted from the cleaner style of the previous ones. A heavily sherried profile inevitably dials back a bit of distillate character.
SGP:461 - 84 points.

Secret Orkney 14 yo 2010/2024 ‘Edition #23’ (57.1%, Signatory Vintage, 100 Proof, 1st & 2nd fill oloroso sherry butt)

Not quite the same designation here, we've gone from ‘Orkney (HP)’ to ‘Secret Orkney’. Rather mysterious, wouldn’t you say… Colour: gold. Nose: clearly straddling both worlds, the truffle and leek have vanished, replaced by more orange and leather, the whole appearing fresher, fruitier, and unmistakably more ‘HP’. Beeswax and a faint hint of camphor. With water: edging ever closer to the sea, with seaweed and saline manzanilla… Mouth (neat): touches of ginger and turmeric, spiced orange peel… With water: I like this a great deal, it’s lively despite the sherry, nicely taut, all on citrus, pepper and heather honey of course. This feels closer to the officials. Finish: a medicinal turn in the finish, cough syrup laced with black pepper, orange liqueur and honey. A lovely concoction that ought to cure anything. Wax in the aftertaste. Comments: refill really is a splendid thing.
SGP:562 - 86 points.

Orkney 10 yo 2013 (57%, The Whisky Exchange, Seasons: Winter, sherry hogshead)

Winter? Oops, looks like we’ve missed sherry monster season. Colour: dark amber. Nose: a cleaner, fruitier kind of sherry, perhaps more on the ‘PX’ side, with Corinth raisins, dried figs, Mars bars, bursts of forest floor (moss, old stumps) and fir honey. We absolutely adore fir honey at WF Towers. With water: pure official style, but official from the 1990s. Gentle smoke, dried fruits, woodland notes, honeys, everything’s in place. Well done! Mouth (neat): fairly rich, caramelised, loaded with three tonnes of raisins and a full lorry of figs and dried dates, plus a few glacé cherries. And yet it never goes ‘too much’, which is near miraculous. The distillate, quietly humming in the background, keeps its saline and mineral frame intact—perhaps that’s why. With water: perfect, saline, smoky, mineral, yet rich and honeyed at the same time. Finish: long, more on black pepper, rich but curiously fresh. We did not say refreshing, mind you. Comments: a smart move, this is pretty flawless—I do hope they won’t mind that I tasted this baby in summer.
SGP:552 - 88 points.

Secret Orkney 17 yo 2004/2022 (53.1%, Whisky-Doris, 20th Anniversary, sherry butt, cask #13, 240 bottles)

We’re a little late to the party, though we’ve already tasted some splendid HPs from Whisky-Doris in the past… And if they celebrated their twentieth in 2022, then they’re the same age as little Whiskyfun! Hurray! Colour: gold. Nose: though it’s a butt again, we’re right back into more traditional HP territory, with both softness and firmness, wax, honeys, baked apples, smoked paprika, crushed pepper… In a nutshell, it’s lovely stuff. With water: a few wafts of walnut skin, spent matches (just the one, fear not) and chocolate. Oddly, the water has brought out more sherry than distillate. Mouth (neat): excellently fruity and taut, smoky, saline, rich yet elegant, characterful, all on candied fruits and all manner of citrus. It’s excellent, I believe we’re in high-score country. With water: leather and tobacco, but all in fine balance. The salinity shines through. Finish: fairly long, elegant, firm and yet rather rich. A sensation of smoked sultanas and seawater in the aftertaste. Beware, it wakes up! Comments: very, very charming and quite fascinating to follow, especially if you practise progressive reduction (not a new neo-eco-Trotskyist political theory, rest assured).
SGP:652 - 89 points.

Let’s wrap this up…

Old Orkney Malt 25 yo 1999/2025 (50.3%, Decadent Drinks, HHD + sherry butt)

Aged first in refill hogshead then finished in a sherry butt. Decadent Drinks now own the ‘Double O’ or ‘O.O.’ marque, once held by Stromness Distillery and later by Gordon & MacPhail. It’s genuinely part of Scotland’s, and particularly Orkney’s, whisky heritage, so hats off to D.D. for keeping O.O. alive! And who knows, maybe one day they’ll unearth an old cask of Stromness, long forgotten in some derelict warehouse? That could well be the plot of ‘The Angel’s Share 2’, no? Someone ought to mention it to Ken Loach... Colour: deep gold. Nose: rooted in the earth, with last year’s fruits, pipe tobacco, Thai broth, a box of Cuban cigars, and the exhaust of a sports car (so, no Tesla), more mead than honey. With water: leather and bay leaf coming to the fore. Mouth (neat): firmer than expected, roasted and grilled, almost slightly burnt, all on chocolate and lightly salted coffee, with a surprise appearance from prunes in Armagnac. Well, fancy that… With water: back to dry sherry, almost mustardy, and particularly on damp earth, dried meat, black pepper and pine needles. Finish: we’re now in the realm of very old Madeira, Marsala or dry sherries. Comments: it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey, and here’s a perfect illustration. That said, I imagine this bottle may divide opinion a little; it’s like free jazz, not everyone’s cup of tea (least of all ‘the neighbours’).
SGP:463 - 91 points.

NB: The two Signatory bottlings that are heavily sherried might seem slightly below the others at first glance, but that’s not really the case. First, we always tend to favour the cleaner versions, and secondly, these SigVs are offered at much more accessible prices than the others. So hats off to them, they’re excellent HPs!

Check the index of all Highland Park we've tasted so far