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.
the big standard Highland Park is a pretty good bet. it's got a lot gookmg for it at a pretty good price. Dark Origins is a much harder bottle to praise. the price indicates it should be something special but unfortunately under inspection it's a pretty poor. it's got the usual HP flavour but the whole sherry thing just doesn't come through at the kind of level you'd expect. it's a nice drop but not £60 nice. The price and promise make me think there's far greater bottles for the same price or less. a bit thin, warming but ultimately lacking.
Not as smooth as the Highland Parks I am used to. Good peat and nice chew but a bit harsh even with a drop of water
Mmm.. yummy, yummy liquorice. Really liked this one!
This bottling will form part of the core Highland Park offering, but it proved so popular at launch that everyone wanted to get their hands on it! More bottles have now come into stock and this will be a regular product on the site. --The Chaps at Master of Malt
Is this a limited edition whisky, or will it be a staple in the HP range? I am shocked it is out of stock so soon.
