Highland Park 41 Year Old 1968 - Peerless (Duncan Taylor) Whisky 70cl

A fabulous whisky. A Highland Park by provenance. But Cask was brought to Speyside at some point. So you have a gentler more feminine side to the Orkney classic. Wonderful. Have one with a clean palate. Then move onto merely good whiskies. A 41 year old Highland Park. You may only get 1 opportunity to buy and taste. Take it.
Harpreet Singh
The Angels' Share Whisky bar.
Hitchin
Herts.
SG5 1EE

This 41yr old independently bottled Highland Park obviously started life at the distillery of name. However the cask was at some point taken to the Speyside region. The lighter notes of the liquid elude to this. It seems surprisingly l young for a 41 yr old. Taste with a clean palate and with no other whiskies before it. Then one can enjoy the subtle complexity it has to offer.
With patience and quietness, a damn good dram.
Represents wonderful value at appx half price of a conventional distillery bottled 40 year old.

The nose is slightly high toned and cheesey to begin with, which was something I wasn’t expecting. Once poured it needs some time to settle down. First impressions now are that it is more like a heavily oaked Spey than a Highland Park. Yes there are some pleasant dried heather nuances but the oak is firmly in control. The cheesey note has now become more of a lanolin note and there is a touch of sugar coated herbal honey, which sort of offsets it. Nevertheless the dominant oak smells relatively fresh and not as mature as I would have expected, so I would assume that it has been re-racked at some stage.

The palate is gentle, oily with a light makula honey and sweet, fleshy citrus fruit. Not particularly coastal and initially the oak is not as intrusive as it is on the nose. The alcohol although relatively low still has a refreshing bite. It doesn’t take long for the oak to reassert itself with bitter tannins and hints of coffee, even though the gorgeous honey tries its best to wrap it up. It’s not particularly long, and one feels it’s pleasant enough for its age, but for £310 is pleasant good enough?