Highland Park 12 yo 'Viking Honour' (OB, 40%, -/+ 2023)
I can't recall the last time I properly wrote notes for the Highland Park 12yo, but it's a dram I'll happily order, and usually enjoy, in a pub. Colour: pale gold. Nose: feels like the balance of peat and coastal elements and heather honey has been well struck. These elements are all well accompanied by some slightly sweetened breakfast cereals, a few ales and breads, and then a little putty. Mouth: the ABV lets it down a bit, leaving a feeling of flatness up front, but the actual flavours of soft, heather peat smoke, along with some richer shilling ales, honey on brown toast and a little sweetened black tea are all very classical and lovely. Finish: short-medium in length, a little drier, rootier and more herbal, all nicely familiar. Comments: I can see why this goes down so easily in the pub! It just struggles in these more 'analytical' situations, which I'm sure is almost entirely down to the miserly bottling strength. 
SGP: 462 - 83 points. 

Highland Park 18 yo 1987/2005 (40%, El Vino, sherry)
El Vino originally quite a famous wine bar on Fleet Street in London. It imported wines, including sherry in casks, and subsequently filled those casks with whiskies it would later bottle itself. A practice which was common amongst such old school wine merchants and importers in the UK; Averys being another good example. Colour: gold. Nose: you do indeed get a lovely, easy and rather old school sherry profile. Here the lower ABV probably helps a little as it's allowing all these golden sultanas, soft dark fruits and quince to rise to the surface. Also rather a lot of honey and a few suggestions of flower nectars. Simple and very attractive. Mouth: funny, this tastes like a much older OB bottling from around the mid-70s that would display quite a bit of OBE (old bottle effect), so there's these dusty, metallic and slightly cardboardy impressions already - would something from 2005 already begin to show these characteristics? What a terrifying thought! Anyway, it's nice enough, but it feels a tad flat and here you really see how a few degrees more alcohol would come to the rescue. Finish: short, on soft teas, some mead, a little camphor and breakfast cereals. Comments: tricky, the nose was lovely, but the palate kind of fell apart a little bit. Now, perhaps it was my sample…?
 SGP: 551 - 78 points. 

An Orkney Distillery 9 yo 2012/2022 (57.1%, Watt Whisky, two hogsheads, 733 bottles)
If Mark has been 'nosing in pale blue', as the label tells us, can we expect a coastal Orkney profile? Let's hope so… Colour: white wine. Nose: hay, cider apples, lemon juice, sheep wool and beach pebbles. A profile that immediately makes you smile. Vividly on pure distillate and indeed  'purity' itself (what?). But also with a wee waxy side as well which gives the impression of body. With water: gets wonderfully chalky and mineral, with a lot of fresh linens, sandalwood, more pebbles and crushed aspirin. Mouth: superb! Waxy, salty, honeyed, softly peaty, herbal and, indeed, coastal! This perfect balance between distillate character and rounding sweetness. In fact, along with these more rugged coastal elements, you do get a nicely sense of the barley and raw ingredients. With water: gets more waxy, more oily and generally 'fatter' in the mouth. Also the peat goes up a notch too. Finish: long, lemony, gently waxy, slightly sooty and with a naturally 'dirty' peat note in the aftertaste. Comments: these bottlings are dead certs for leaving in a cupboard for 20-30 years to mellow - given time this one will sail easily past the 90 mark. Wonderfully pure and charismatic young HP! And also, it's a small batch of two casks, which I always tend to prefer over single casks.
 SGP: 463 - 88 points. 

An Orkney Distillery 11 yo 2012/2023 'Reserve Casks' (48%, Elixir Distillers 'The Single Malts of Scotland', oloroso sherry butt)
Colour: bright mahogany. Nose: creamy, sweet and coconut-drive modern sherry cask profile, but excellently so, in that you don't detect excessive oak influence up front. I'm not too sure about how much HP comes through either, but the overall profile is excellent and extremely easy and inviting. Mouth: the sherry and oak are a little more balanced here, with some exotic hardwood resins and wood spices, along with acacia, cinnamon and liquorice root. It's also quite herbal with punchy notes of herbal cocktail bitters and aged Fernet Branca. Going towards coal syrup, menthol tobacco and ointments. Given time it's also getting saltier and nuttier too, which I find excellent and very traditional 'Oloroso'. Finish: medium, lightly spicy, back on liquorice root, bark, cedar wood cigar boxes and bitter cocoa. Comments: probably more a demonstration of a very well sourced / selected sherry cask, than particularly of Highland Park. But overall an excellent sherried dram at a perfect ABV. 
SGP: 462 - 88 points. 

Secret Orkney 14 yo (54.1%, Dram Mor, finished in ex-Bruichladdich Chateau d'Yquem barrique, 305 bottles, 2022)
So, HP finished in an old Chateau d'Yquem cask which, in between, matured some mid-peated Bruichladdich. I'm sure Serge would have something to say about 'in cask blending'… Colour: white wine. Nose: chalks, plasticine and very delicate honeys up front, more towards this mineral and coastal side I would say. Evolves nicely with some crisp peat smoke, which certainly smells more Orkney than Islay to me, and then also a little waxiness. With water: some canvass and hessian notes, more mineral notes and a touch of aniseed. Mouth: what I like here is that, had the label just said 'hogshead' I wouldn't have blinked, however, the knowledge about that finish has you sort of looking for cracks so to speak. Lots of very typical pebbles, minerals, soft waxes and little drying peat smoke and an impression of smoked olive oil too. With water: on funky cider apples, hessian, more olive oil and dry, sooty peat notes. Finish: medium, peppery, fully coastal and nicely drying now. Comments: no idea what this finish contributed, but the net effect is a very easy and typical modern, distillate forward HP in my view.
SGP: 452 - 87 points. 

Orkney 15 yo 2007/2022 (59.7%, North Star, oloroso hogshead, 328 bottles)
Colour: deep orangey gold. Nose: creamy and gingery sherry, in fact noses rather like some pretty good cream sherry. Goes on with this rather lovely leafy and mulchy side, undergrowth, pipe tobacco, cigar humidor and walnuts. A few sweeter impressions such as heather honey and sweet stout as well. Very good. With water: leafy, earthy, nutty and gently salty with these slightly old school leathery aspects. Mouth: a little sharper and less rounded than the neat nose suggested, a rather powerful and rugged profile up front, with much more saltiness, gamey notes, natural tar, embrocations, graphite oil and camphor. A big personality! With water: cooking oils, camphor, fir wood, a drop of creme de menthe and some salted liquorice. Big, big whisky! Finish: long, getting wonderfully dry now, on game salami, unlit cigars, walnut oil and camphor once again. Comments: was this a 1st fill or refill sherry hoggie? Feels like the latter to me, in the very best sense that it shows sherry and HP distillate in very nice balance. That said, this is a big hefty bruiser of a dram! One to reach for if you are seeking an intellectual tussle with your whisky. 
SGP: 363 - 89 points. 

Orkney 16 yo 2006/2022 (64.3%, Signatory Vintage for The Whisky Exchange, cask #15DRU17/A65, refill sherry butt, 661 bottles)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: beery, honeyed and slightly lemony, but also a tad terrifying due to the monolithic ABV. Also some nice impressions of bitter orange marmalade and unlit cigars. Also a wee hint of cough medicine too. But the general impression is that this needs water… with water: golden syrup, cured ham, black truffle, muscovado sugar and aged mead. Mouth: not as beastly as I feared, but still rather hot and obfuscated by the high alcohol. Narrows on honey on sourdough, ales and cured meats. Let's go for water… with water: still rather hot and boisterous, on paprika, smoky bacon, soy sauce and cured gravadlax with wee notes of dill, aniseed and an increasingly drying salinity. Quite difficult to be honest. Finish: long, peppery, salty, on squid ink, more soy sauce, more salty notes and more wee gamey and leathery touches. Comments: A brute! I know this kind of profile has many fans, but I find it a tad too tough and gruelling for my liking. Technically very good whisky in some regards, but I feel it would have benefited from a reduced bottling strength. 
SGP: 372 - 84 points. 

Secret Orkney 17 yo 2004/2022 (49.4%, Whisky Nerds, cask #13, butt, 248 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: now we're talking! Beautifully concentrated honeyed and salty profile that shows real maturity! Waxes, delicate peaty notes, little coastal inflections, mineral oil, sandalwood and hessian. Everything I am total sucker for in Highland Park essentially. Mouth: soft, heathery, lightly honeyed, very delicately peaty and perfectly saline and drying. There's also a gentle touch of dry, peppery waxiness. Everything is here and in its place and rather gentle, yet the overall distillery character remains vivid and strong. Goes on with some herbal teas and medicinal roots and herbs. Finish: long, on crystallised honey and aged mead with some more peppery waxy notes and very delicate threads of peat. Comments: rather like what I imagine a proper strength version of the 18yo to be in my head. Nuff said! 
SGP: 462 - 90 points. 

Highland Park 19 yo 2001/2021 (52.5%, OB, cask #2587, refill hogshead, 251 bottles)
I think it's great that Edrington would release mid-aged, official hoggies of Highland Park. But this is another example of an official company expecting auction prices for modern distillate. Now, while I am one of the first to celebrate how great modern HP can be, it is not up with the 1960s, and frankly, the price of this bottling comes from a place of serious corporate delusion of you ask me. Now, as ever, while we comment on such prices occasionally, it is the whiskies themselves for which we record notes and scores… Colour: deep gold. Nose: a gorgeous mix of crystallised honeys, fruits and tiny medicinal and peaty notes. Medicinal roots such as gentian, wormwood and aged herbal liqueurs. Then cough mixtures and tiger balm. Superb beautifully detailed. With water: pristinely saline, along with pure heather honey, smoked beer, camphor and resinous fir wood. Mouth: I'd be amazed if this wasn't a refill sherry hogshead, this is really on leathery and earthy refill sherry notes, loads of salinity, salted almonds, cured game meats, smoked paprika and dried herbs. The best Serrano ham with a glass of pristinely salty Amontillado. I also find a rising pepperiness, and hints of English mustard powder and smoked teas, it all adds to this sense of building complexity. With water: maintains cruising altitude, and this sense of leathery, salty, refill sherry goodness! Finish: long, terrifically pure, vibrant, salty, gamey, slightly tarry and peppery. Comments: I am left with a similar feeling after trying that silly Bunnahabhain 1990 for TWE at 2k a bottle: frustration. Anyway, this is exactly what you'd hope for from an OB single cask: bags of distillery character, perfect maturity and a rather particular slant on the house style, in this case a super salty, refill sherry profile that is just awesome. I still think it is damagingly expensive though. 
SGP: 363 - 91 points. 

An Orkney Distillery 22 yo 2000/2023 (52.7%, The Whisky Exchange, Whisky Show 2023, cask #41, refill hogshead, 328 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: pure, slightly salted heather honey, we have indeed 'struck' Orkney. Goes on with soft waxes, dried mint, a touch of eucalyptus, mineral oils, sandalwood and gorse flower. Also these familiar wee medicinal and herbal touches come through in time as well. Beautiful! With water: brilliant, a superbly cohesive singular and wonderfully honeyed profile, fill of waxes, fir woods, wee coastal notes and gentle peat notes. Mouth: superbly creamy and oily upon arrival. Thick waxes, olive oil, ointments, lanolin, camphor and wee sweeter, more playful hints of coconut, citrus curds and back to heather honey again. There's also a deeper, baseline of dry, herbal peat smoke which is just brilliant! With water: this wonderful tension between salty/coastal impressions, those brighter citrus notes again, waxes and soft, herbal and drying peat smoke. Brilliant, mature HP. Finish: long, drying, getting earthier, richer and more peppery and powerful in the aftertaste. Comments: hard not to laugh when thinking about this one against the OB, which was of pretty much the same quality in my view. Anyway, a great cask and a perfect example of contemporary Highland Park at its best. 
SGP: 463 - 91 points. 

Secret Orkney 22 yo 1999/2021 (52.0%, The Taste Of Whisky, cask #15, 60 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: very similar feeling to the TWE 2000, only this is perhaps even more focused on the honey side of things. Beeswax, pollens, nectars and golden syrup in salty porridge. Similar feelings to be honest. With water: a touch of greenery with a light grassy and crushed nettle note, but then bags more sheep wool, coastal pebbles, chalk, waxes, mineral oils and camphor. Mouth: outstanding arrival! All on rich honeyed notes, soft herbal peat smoke, waxes, pollens, ales and sandalwood. Similar concentrative style and profile, and same levels of quality. With water: same variations on a theme: honey, wax, herbs, soft peat and seashore! Finish: long, perfectly drying, salty, honeyed and waxy. Comments: hard to fault these late 90s / early 00s batches. 
SGP: 462 - 91 points. 

An Orkney Distillery 22 yo 1999/2022 (52.6%, Nanyang Whisky 'The Peninsula Collection', cask #8, hogshead, 280 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: this one comes across as perhaps a little sharper and more youthful. More towards coastal notes, some green and citrus fruits, white coastal flowers with their pollens and then more familiar waxy and honeyed notes in the background. With water: crystallised citrus fruits, mint tea and a few herbal ointments. Mouth: excellent arrival, fresh and coastal, with peppery bite, lemon rind, white flowers, cereals and waxes. Feels generally a bit younger, sharper and fresher overall. With water: this slightly wilder, earthier and more vegetal side comes through, along with a slightly more assertive salinity. Good tension and power. Finish: long, waxy, oily and getting back into more typical territory now. Lovely oily and waxy aftertaste. Comments: also excellent, just a notch beneath the other two in my view. 
SGP: 462 - 89 points. 

Highland Park 24 yo 1986/2020 (46%, Mo Òr Collection, cask #2275, bourbon hogshead, 300 bottles)
Colour: white wine. Nose: gorgeous and markedly, fascinatingly different. Much more on crushed seashells, white stone fruits, pure waxes and medicines. With a much fatter and deeper profile of peat. Going back towards what I'd generally characterise as 'older style' HP. I find the nose really wonderful. Mouth: same feeling as on the nose, bright, sharp citrus fruits, along with crystallised honey, thick, drying and gentle peat smoke that sits beneath everything and this overall sense of a dry, earthy, rooty and coastal profile. There's also a more brittle style of waxy flavour and things like plasticine, mineral oil, more crushed seashells and dried herbs. Finish: good length, rather bone dry, salty and showing almost a white wine sort of profile in terms of tautness, dryness and structure. Comments: were the 1980s superior to the 1970s for Highland Park? Potentially quite a hot take, please discuss. Also, I feel like this humble wee bottling might have been a tad overlooked at the time, perhaps 46% does mean bottlings can get a bit 'lost' too easily? Anyway, if this one crosses your path, I think it is well worth your time, it's a beautiful, pure old school HP with an enchanting fragility about it.
SGP: 363 - 90 points.

Highland Park 12 yo (43%, OB, 1 litre for duty free, 1980s) 
A bottle I opened for my wedding last May, where it featured as part of a 'complimentary whisky bar'. Later this year we hope to put up a plaque to honour the survivors… Colour: pale amber. Nose: lovely old school sherry, all about this leafy, mulchy and earthy profile that makes you immediately think of cigar humidors, cedar wood and authentic sherry bodega funk! This one continues with sultanas, some impressions of very old Armagnac, and then some wonderful rooty and gamey notes that stray more towards medicines and dry peat. Mouth: terrific mixture of dry, herbal, old school peat, soft dark fruits, pipe and cigar tobacco and then waxes, putty, herbal teas and liquorice. Kind of simple in some ways, but gorgeous and utterly lethal! Finish: long, getting salty, herbal and showing this terrific combination of resinous sherry and dry peat. Comments: It's to be wondered if larger format bottles also work well for whisky as they do for wine in terms of long term storage? Anyway, thank God there was a magnum of Springbank at the bar to take the heat off this bonnie wee beauty! 
SGP: 563 - 91 points.

Highland Park 1970/1995 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail 'Centenary Reserve') 
Colour: amber. Nose: old school indeed, and in fact, rather old fashioned too, with this sense of dusty, dry and mineral sherry that shows some engine oil, some soot and big impressions of hessian cloth and old copper kettles. Add to that a few dollops of marmalade and subdued honey. Mouth: this phrase 'old fashioned' comes back again, in that this is soft, quite sweet and on pretty syrupy notes of golden syrup, flower nectars, elderflower cordial, sweetened black coffee and older Armagnac that has been sweetened. Also some dark Navy rums. There's also camphor and milk chocolate in the background. Finish: medium, sappy, sweet, herbal and with cough medicines and milky cocoa. Comments: a funny one, looks like Serge gave this one WF78 way back in 2005, and I have to say, I can see why, it has this feeling of sweetness that sits alongside the much older school aspects a little uneasily. That being said, I think it'd err on the side of generosity and go for… 
SGP: 541 - 80 points. 

Highland Park 21 yo 1959/1980 (43%, OB 'green dumpy') 
As we might say in Scotland, this one is 'well kent'… Colour: amber. Nose: another galaxy! A totally devastating and singular mix of ancient sherry, the deepest, darkest, rootiest, most organic and herbal Orcadian peat aroma, and then stunningly concentrated dark fruits, salinity, pecans and pickled walnuts, rancio and ancient balsamic. The thing you cannot get past is that it just hits you as one, entirely singular, utterly perfect and spellbinding profile. Impossible to spot the joins. Mouth: oh dear. Censored I'm afraid. We've immediately been forced to summon the anti-maltoporn brigade. But perhaps worth stating that it's precisely the profile of the nose on the palate, and once again the experience is of being immediately dominating by this incredible, singular profile. I'd only add that, with a meagre 43% ABV, this whisky is able to do more and deliver more by way of power, precision and enthralment than any number of cask strength drams. Finish: extremely long, stunningly herbal, darkly fruity and just hypnotically peaty. Comments: whisky that sort of breaks you brain. For me, 1950s Highland Park is up there with 1960s Bowmore, 1960s Laphroaig etc. One of the unique and great all time flavour experiences in whisky.  
SGP: 665 - 95 points. 

Angus's Corner
From our correspondent and
skilled taster Angus MacRaild in Scotland

Three Glen Grant for Diego

We received some extremely sad and shocking news this week, that we lost Diego Sandrin, a great man and a great friend of Whiskyfun too.

Glen Grant 1965/2004 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail)
Colour: amber. Nose: a simply gorgeous combinations of nectars, pollens, precious honeys, waxes and soft, detailed earthiness. Fig jam, prunes in Armagnac, sumptuous leathery aromas and feelings of old library books, linseed oil and hessian. The kind of whisky that demands a frankly outrageous measure in a Cognac snifter glass. Mouth: soft, abundant and supply fruitiness. Dark sticky fruits, golden sultanas, moist Guinness cake, treacle, lamp oil and old sweet madeira. Then those lovely honey and mead notes return, along with greener fruits and flower nectars. Sumptuous, gorgeous and completely deadly! Finish: long, rancioed, liquorice, salted caramel and dark chocolate and then more layers of tobaccos, mint, treacle and dark fruits. Comments: almost embarrassingly delicious, a mere 91 points in technical terms but the kind of juice you could guzzle until the stars go out. Old Glen Grants seem to nail this style more often than any other whisky I believe - it's why I just adore them so much.
SGP: 651 - 91 points.

Glen Grant 20 yo 'Director's Reserve' (75 proof, OB, Giovinetti Import, 1970s)
Colour: gold. Nose: the densest, most superb honey aroma. Pure honeycomb, coconut, acacia, wormwood, ancient yellow Chartreuse and resinous fir and hardwoods. What I adore about these old official/G&M Glen Grants from this era is how they deliver what is in some ways a rather singular profile, but that profile is just utter beauty and poetry in a glass. You could also mention waxes, medical tinctures, citrons and crystallised exotic fruits. Mouth: perfection! Glorious soft threads of dry, herbal peat, interwoven with any number of preserved and crystallised green and exotic fruits you care to mention. Also some marrow, mechanical oils and wee tarry aspects adding body and power. There's also metallic notes, bouillon stock and a more pure and punchy waxiness coming through now. Finish: long, wonderfully resinous, honeyed, herbal, waxy and becoming mentholated and showing wee notes of dried flowers and yellow fruits. Comments: as I have said before, old Glen Grants always were, and remain, steadfastly terrible. That is all.
SGP: 000 -30 points. (ok, ok… 562 - 92 points, whatever!)

Glen Grant 67 yo 1955/2022 (49.8%, Gordon & MacPhail Private Collection for LMDW, Collection Antipodes, 1st fill sherry butt, cask #839, 100 bottles) 
Colour: deep brownish amber. Nose: stunningly deep and superbly earthy. Riddled with these wonderful mulchy and mushroomy notes that lead into umami seasonings such as Maggi along with sultana, fig and prune on the fruitier side of things. Add to that these damp and deep layers of camphor, tobacco leaf, cigar humidor and musty wine cellar funk. One of these hypnotic old sherried whiskies where the sherry seems to have somehow managed to remain fresh and there's enough fruitiness and complexity in the nose to keep everything balanced. Mouth: pure walnut wine laced with ancient cigars, pipe tobacco, the bitterest and most gorgeous dark chocolate with tiny inflections of sea salt and pure umami. A whisky where the sherry influence has run so deep you cannot help but start to wonder about Amontillado? Oloroso? etc. Then the usual tars, resinous herbal and medicinal aspects and bitter dried mint notes. It's certainly old and certainly has taken up the tannin of the wood but it remains wonderfully alive and these peppery, medicinal qualities that really make you think of some old G&M Taliskers are utterly sublime. Finish: impeccably tarry, rustic, earthy and long. Layered with tobaccos, typically glorious old rancio and balsamic, and also some dark honeys, herbal tinctures, aniseed, fennel and salted liquorice. Remains alive and still showing a glorious balance of bitter herbs, umami, earths and preserved dark fruits right to the end - whenever that may arrive… Comments: priced and boxed up as a rich person's plaything, which is extremely sad because it's actually a rather spellbinding and hauntingly brilliant liquid. An astonishing flavour that only time and the greatest distillate and oak ingredients can yield.
SGP: 562 - 92 points.