Highland Park 8 yo (70 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, dark vatting, -/+ 1978)
The 100 proof versions justifiably carry mighty reputations, but these slightly more 'under the radar' 70 proof versions could also be superb in my experience... Colour: light amber. Nose: straight away we're in classical HP territory. Soft, dry peat, mushroom powder, walnuts, earthy potting shed, clay, dried out herbs, verbena, some old funny cocktail bitters. Add to all that wet leaves and unlit cigars! It's just so very complete, humble and pleasing! Mouth: it even works well at only 40%, the weight of the distillate is such that you still get body, the peat comes through with more drying, peppery characteristics, black tea, dried mint, treacle with sea salt, miso, Scotch broth and fir wood full of resins. Simply but again the feeling of a cohesive, fully formed and rather beautiful profile is impossible to escape. Finish: good length, resins and heather honey with very delicate peat going into the aftertaste. Comments: one word: deadly! SGP: 563 - 90 points. 

Highland Park 1971/1985 (56%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 4.4)
A bottle I opened last September to mark my 40th birthday. Like me, it was also 'bottled' in Edinburgh in July 1985! Colour: white wine. Nose: it would be hard to be further away from the 8yo without being made at a different distillery (what?). This is all wet rocks, plaster, lemon rind, sheep wool, wonderful mineral notes all jangling together, beach sand, driftwood, crushed seashells, coastal flowers... one of those whiskies that compels me to write the word 'evocative'. With time it gets even more focused on these lemony aromas, preserved lemon, lemon tea etc. With water: pure seawater, dried seaweed, tiny briny notes, more flinty minerals and crushed shells. An almost brittle sense about it. But overall, totally beautiful. Mouth: amazing purity and at also a breadth of flavours at work, the peat comes through, with smoked sea salt, olive oil, seawater, old cough medicines, tiger balm, more of these oily sheep wool impressions, white miso, dried tarragon, lime. It's a brilliant example of what a masterful distillate Highland Park can be, the way it can juggle and express so many facets simultaneously and with subtlety. With water: thicker, saltier, peatier, just more rugged and grizzly. It's also much fatter and waxier, with more of these wonderful smoked olive oil impressions, more medicines and hints of eucalyptus and mint. Finish: wonderfully long, drying, salty, delicately smoky, bone-dry peat smoke coming through, along with more savoury and coastal beauty. Comments: a modest masterpiece of distillate. A simple 14-year-old, probably refill cask, that is just effortlessly elegant, expressive, complex and brilliant. I'll leave the jokes about which of us has lasted best up to you. SGP: 453 - 93 points.

Highland Park NAS 'Saint Magnus' (100 proof, OB, early 1970s)
These are very hard to find nowadays, there also licensed versions by G&M with this livery as well. Colour: gold. Nose: it's funny that it would sit somewhere between the 8yo and the 1971, it's clearly from an earlier production era with this overall much fatter, greasier and slightly dirtier profile, but it's also much more powerful, peatier, earther, more mechanical and full of things like honey roast parsnip, tar, bone marrow, camphor, paraffin, beeswax and cough syrup. No less impressive! With water: suet, squid ink, peat smoke in a kiln, coal scuttles and cow sheds! Mad stuff! Mouth: amazing power, concentration and intensity. The peat is really dialled way up here, massive, thick, drying, herbaceous and rooty in the way that only old HP seems to be able to deliver. All manner of putty, miso, dried herbs, medicinal herbs and roots, umami broths, camphor, seawater, engine oil. The list could really go on and on. With water: the peat softens slightly, we're left with glowing embers, hints of seawater, anthracite, putty, miso, mushroom stock, mineral oil and really fat notes of wax, camphor, resins and boot polish. Finish: very long, elegantly peaty, drying, salty, mineral and with an oily impression. Comments: hard not to get carried away with such bottlings, the peat profile and flavour is utterly distinctive and seemingly indigenous to these very old school Orcadian malt whiskies. I had it neck and neck with the 1971, but the palate and the peat really elevated it that wee bit higher. SGP: 465 - 94 points.