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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Not sure how so many people didn't approve of this dram....honestly for the price it has a wonderful face full of sherry flavor. At first I thought that it was just decent, but I continually found myself coming back to it when it came time to decide what I wanted to pair with a cigar or even just have a night cap. For a non-aged scotch it is wonderfully smooth and the flavor is complex, while at the same time being pretty straight forward. I ended up picking up a second bottle, as I find myself calling this my "go to" scotch.
Smooth cherry flavour. I enjoyed it!
Wonderful front chocolate and light smoke taste. Nice bold finish, a little harsh going down. Overall pretty good. Highland Park Loki is still the best!
Highland park as always produced another fine liquid. Well rounded sweet finish, very nice.
Lovely dram, love the thickness, but a bit pricey for NAS
