Highland Park Dark Origins celebrates the early days of Magnus Eunson's illicit distilling on Orkney, back before the distillery was even founded in 1798. Magnus worked as a butcher and church official by day, but by night he was a legendary whisky smuggler and distiller outwitting the exciseman.
To honour their hero (the Batman of the Orkney Islands, if you will), Highland Park created a whisky with a suitably 'dark' character. Using 80% first-fill sherry casks (20% refill) - 60% are first-fill European oak, with 20% being first-fill American oak - an exciting, spicy, chocolatey whisky has been produced.
This bottle was part of a private collection - if you'd like more detailed photos just get in touch!
Dusty baking spices and cocoa at first, cinnamon, vanilla, dates. Coffee cream Revels (possibly a couple of the orange ones too), a touch of blackcurrant/liquorice, plus butterscotch and an interplay between milk and dark chocolate.
Sweet, fragrant peat emerges with nutty melted milk chocolate and a little orange alongside some pastries.
Long and sweet, a little dry chocolate, just a hint of that heather smoke, then salivating.
Rounded first-fill Sherry notes come from both the European and American oak casks. This is a great, chocolatey addition of a (teenage) no age statement release.
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I love HP 12 and think it's a great distillery from some of the videos I watched. But I have to agree: someone needs to "speak truth to foolishness" here. I will be skipping the new viking-themed bottles of the 12 and other hyped product. I understand the need to sell volume - so release a separate bottling or line just for "consumers" (who are mostly using it to melt ice anyway). Why re-brand everything? The malt geeks don't care about vikings but such marketing insults our intelligence, it reeks of pop product. We only want to know about casks, maturation, barley, still shapes, etc. Could the new "viking" HP12 be as good as the previous bottling? Sure. But I'll never spend my money to find out. Lame marketing like that actually repels me. Oh, and why would anyone in Scotland celebrate vikings? They looted ya! :)
New to single malt (and scotch) Trying to acquaint myself with the fire and intensity. I like the nose and the finish mostly . I enjoy the slow relaxing feel of scotch. The savory coating of the tongue and palate. The resting in the mouth slow pace that pauses the spin of the planet for a bit. The experience in every drop is worth every cent invested. Seems to be extremely cost effective considering the small amount needed for a long sitting of enjoyment. Wine and others are drink. Good single malt is drips of sips and savor.
To honour their hero (the Marketing toad of the Orkney Islands, if you will), Highland Park have created a whisky with a suitably 'artificial' character. There is no age statement, it's all about first-fill sherry cask influence, 80% of 60% plus 20% (some of which... might or might not be refill) minus the number you first thought of. By night he was a legendary budgie smuggler, exciting and spicy, outwitting the poor whisky buyers. Oh, and he had a VIKING name. Did I say VIKING loud enough? The whisky? I have no idea - its all about the marketing , see?
Wow, sherry and much more!
I guess it is not to everyone's taste. But damn I do enjoy it. It's the perfect pairing with our fall weather. I love the different favor notes.
