Origin: Orkney Islands (Scotland)
Type: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Strength: 54,6%ABV
Ageing cask: Ex-Sherry
Chillfiltered: No
Added coloring: No
Owner: The Edrington Group
Average price: € 420.00
Official website: www.highlandparkwhisky.com
As I have said several times, the bottle that made me fall in love with whisky was an old Highland Park 12yo. You can therefore imagine my emotion, halfway between ecstatic rapture and mystical delirium, when I walked through the distillery gate during my week with the friends of Whisky Club Italia in the Orkney Islands in June 2026.
This is not the place for a detailed report of the tour and the tastings, nor to share my mixed feelings about it. What matters is remembering that I walked out of Highland Park with a unique bottling in my hands. A distillery exclusive release that I tasted at the whisky bar and was quickly convinced to buy, much to the dismay of my already aching credit card.
It is a single cask, no. 4097, an ex-sherry first fill cask filled in 2006 and bottled in 2024 at 54.6%abv, in 387 bottles, all presented in a showy, elegant and rather bulky light-wood box (which then took up quite a bit of space in the suitcase).
I opened the bottle just a few days ago. Today it’s time to report how it is.
Tasting Notes
The color is a magnificent bronze.
The nose immediately makes one thing clear: this is not one of the many recent bottlings in which the character of the distillery has evaporated along with the alcohol. Here the Highland Park signature is fully present, with its typical spiral, enveloping but never overpowering smokiness, married with an elegance that words can hardly express to the remarkable contribution of the first fill cask: notes of caramel, cherries in spirit, stewed fruit, chestnut honey, and polished dark wood, with a balsamic breath of pine resin and a sprinkle of pepper. The overall impression is ultra-luxurious, yet never tiresome: it is self-assured, not showy.
The palate fully confirms this impression, with a smoke that is even more evocative in the way it envelopes the mouth without dulling the sense of taste, making room for notes of cinnamon, caramelized fruit, black cherry, honey, orange zest, and pine resin, with a clearly sweet inclination that is nonetheless balanced, in a profile that the precisely tuned alcohol strength enhances at the peak of its aromatic expression.
The finish is truly long and seems to sum up the impressions gathered during the earlier stages of the tasting, with smoke coating the palate, the playful pepper teasing it, and echoes of caramel and ripe fruit.
Review: Here you find everything that is missing in many recent Highland Parks, which prefer storytelling over substance. The cask certainly makes itself felt, but the distillate does not retreat one step in terms of identity, and the ensemble of aromas is one of those that convinces and wins you over from the first sip.
Vote: 90/100