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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Had always saw Dark Origins and I read some of the reviews on here and that had put me off. Eventually I decided to try it and I'm glad I did. It's up there in a handful of favourites! I absolutely love it!
This is my first NAS Highland Park and I'm impressed. Deliciously peaty without being overly smoky. Sherry takes over the finish. I appreciate the extra alcoholic percentage, which pushes back against the sweet sherry. Not as much heather or honey as the standard bottlings. This is a nice change from the 12yo. I love the black bottle too. My big complaint is the price. I do not like paying nearly twice as much for a NAS product. But HP is not the only offender when it comes to this.
I agree with the previous post. The Highland Park 15 was my favorite whisky for a long time but this one fell flat. And as the previous commenter wrote it is even less pronounced than the highland park 12 year, which retails for much less. The smoke is all but gone and the sweetness isn't as remarkable without the contrast. It's also less viscous than any of their range. Its basically missing exactly what makes Highland Park so incredible. That being said, if for some reason there is no possible way you can obtain the Highland Park 12 and you get this one half price, its worth it.
I was expecting some great things from this Bottle. I was at a tasting with a couple of other brands, of lower price and higher. I tried to like this, but right out of the gate it just stayed in the ordinary category. Its bland, has little character and is overpriced for what it is. The 12 yr old is alot better quality.
I'm not an Highland Park fan after drinking both the classic 12 year and HP Einar but this was fucking amazing! I got blown away by it's rich and delicate flavours.
