Highland Park 18 Year

All of Highland Park’s malts are lightly peated with local Orcadian peat (see Distillery inset), and matured mostly in ex-sherry casks. This combination of sherry and peat is uncommon, but very interesting. In the 18, I noticed that the two contrasting elements (fruit-sweet and smokey) were both low-key, and also married extremely well. This made for a delicious combination, and so well integrated. According to the website, all Highland Park whiskies have no coloring additives, although the core expressions are chill-filtered. I’m curious to see how many of these flavors are present in the younger 12 year-old distillery bottling.