Tasting Highland Park 21 year old

highlandparkThis 21 year old has an interesting history. It was first released for Travel retails a few years ago, and was bottled at 47.5% ABV, then Highland park were seeing that it was in high demand and their stocks were low, so the decided to water it down to 40% (still travel retail only), this was a shame since the higher ABV % was much better, and many people did not like that move. Happily earlier this year HP restated the higher strength expression and also made it available to the entire market rather than travel retail, which is very good news for every whisky lover and especially for Highland Park fans. Let’s dram:

Highland park 21 year old , 47.5% ABV , £91HP21_WE

Nose : Wood, citrus as in orange peel , cinnamon And spice , heather and sultanas , honey ad nuts. Old books in the library. Very rich sweet, and not lacking complexity. So much to explore there.
Palate:  Starts spicy and gingery, then off to milk chocolate , some peat smoke but very distant. Heather ,  Oak and stewed fruit.
Finish: Peat smoke, orange peel covered with milk chocolate and cherries.

This is a wonderful dram, complex, rich and rewarding, with a lot to explore every time you sit down and sniff and sip. If you are a fan of the 18, this is a notch better in my book. Things don’t come much better than this. Highland Park fans, and whisky fans, if you can afford this, it’s a no brainer.Great stuff.

Score: 92/100

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