Support for this distillery among Scotch single malt drinkers is very high. When asked what would you choose if you could only have one bottle of Scotch, I have heard a couple of people answer immediately: Highland Park 18. One enthusiast even told me she married her husband because this was the one scotch he stocked in his liquor cabinet (presumably this wasn’t the only reason). \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
It is not exactly cheap, mind you – the standard 750mL, 43% ABV bottle goes for $200 CAD at the LCBO.\u00a0 Here is how it compares to some similarly aged expressions in my Meta-Critic whisky database:<\/p>\n
Bowmore 18yo: 8.51 \u00b1 0.54 on 16 reviews ($$$$) A very respectable ranking, coming in just below the smokier Longrow 18, Talisker 18 and Lagavulin 16.<\/p>\n Here is how it compares to some of the other common HP expressions:<\/p>\n Highland Park 10yo: 8.49 \u00b1 0.30 on 12 reviews ($$$) The HP 18 gets the second highest score I’ve seen for this distillery – despite being a lot less expensive than the higher-end line of Highland Parks.<\/p>\n I have had this scotch on a number of occasions. For this review, I sampled it from my brother’s bottle. Here is what I find in the glass:<\/p>\n Nose<\/strong>: Moist earthy peat. A fair amount of fruit, with lighter summer fruits like peaches and plums plus the typical sherry raisins and figs. Citrusy, with definite lemon. A touch of brine. Doughy bread being baked on a campfire. Very nice.<\/p>\n Palate<\/strong>: The smoke asserts itself now, but the sherried sweetness still takes you home. Same lighter fruits as the nose, but also sweet sultanas now. Some darker berries too, like raspberry and blackberry. Salted caramel, with brown sugar and a touch of nutmeg. Sweet black licorice. Has a decent mouthfeel for a 43% ABV scotch (I would normally find this strength to be watery). Great experience – none of the bitterness I noticed on the 12yo<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finish<\/strong>: Very long, and smokey to the end. Pleasant light sweetness initially, but not very fruity. Has a clarity about it, with great balance. Leaves you with some mouth puckering astringency.<\/p>\n I can understand why some would see this as the quintessential scotch for your liquor cabinet – there is something for everyone here.\u00a0 There’s really no negative that I can find, it all just works well together. That said, I can see why some would prefer more of the extremes (i.e., a sherry bomb or a smoke monster). But for those wanting to walk the line in-between, it doesn’t get much better than this.<\/p>\n Among the highest ratings I’ve seen for this whisky are Gavin of Whisky Advocate<\/a>, Jason of Whisky Won<\/a>, Oliver of Dramming<\/a>,\u00a0and Ralfy<\/a>. Also quite positive (but more typical of the average score) are Serge of Whisky Fun<\/a>, My Annoying Opinions<\/a>, and Nathan the Scotchnoob<\/a>. What can I say, it is very highly recommend by all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Located on the Orkney islands, Highland Park is distinctive for being the most northerly whisky distillery in Scotland. But what truly makes it stand out is the taste – all Highland Park expressions show an unusual combination of native peat and sherry cask aging. Referring back to my modern Flavour Map page, you will see that the highly complex whiskies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23,53,80,29,17],"class_list":["post-2156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whiskies","tag-18yo","tag-highland-park","tag-peated","tag-sherry","tag-single-malt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2181,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions\/2181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBunnahabhain 18yo: 9.01 \u00b1 0.17 on 14 reviews ($$$$$)
\nCaol Ila 18yo: 8.67 \u00b1 0.51 on 14 reviews ($$$$$)
\nGlenlivet 18yo: 8.58 \u00b1 0.19 on 19 reviews ($$$$$)
\nHighland Park 18yo: 9.12 \u00b1 0.24 on 22 reviews ($$$$$)<\/strong>
\nLagavulin 16yo: 9.25 \u00b1 0.23 on 25 reviews ($$$$)
\nLongrow 18yo: 9.18 \u00b1 0.23 on 7 reviews ($$$$$)
\nOban 18yo: 8.71 \u00b1 0.21 on 12 reviews ($$$$$)
\nSpringbank 18yo: 8.96 \u00b1 0.19 on 16 reviews ($$$$$)
\nTalisker 18yo: 9.20 \u00b1 0.20 on 15 reviews ($$$$$)<\/p>\n
\nHighland Park 12yo: 8.66 \u00b1 0.22 on 21 reviews ($$$)
\nHighland Park 17yo Ice: 8.87 \u00b1 0.21 on 4 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nHighland Park 18yo: 9.12 \u00b1 0.24 on 22 reviews ($$$$$)<\/strong>
\nHighland Park 21yo: 8.86 \u00b1 0.39 on 14 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nHighland Park 25yo: 9.17 \u00b1 0.25 on 13 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nHighland Park 30yo: 9.02 \u00b1 0.40 on 9 reviews ($$$$$+)
\nHighland Park Dark Origins 8.49: \u00b1 0.47 on 16 reviews ($$$$)<\/p>\n![\"Highland.Park.18\"](\"http:\/\/whiskyanalysis.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Highland.Park_.18.jpg\")
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