These bottling contains a high portion of American oak sherry casks which gives them notes on the sweeter side, but these expressions also carry a noticeable smoky side according to the official tasting notes - I look forward experiencing that.
I recently passed through Aberdeen airport and I decided to pick up the middle expression, the 'Einar' at £47 for 1 liter, which seemed like the best buy. Later this year, 3 more expressions will hit the travel retail market, rumoured to be named 'Sigurd', 'Ragnvald' and 'Thorfinn' but are rumoured to be quite expensive bottlings - guess we'll just have to wait and see....
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| Partial shot of Ring of Brodgar on Orkney Mainland, 5th August 2009 © The Malt Desk |
Highland Park 'Einar' NAS, 40%, Distillery bottling (travel retail) 100cl
Colour is straw
Nose:
Noticeable peat, slightly floral and honeyed, some orangy notes, spicy oak, banana and vanilla creme
Taste:
Some (tropical?) fruit, then a clearly peated infusion. A bit of an oily feel too, which water confirms when adding a few drops. A vague yeasty note, gingery, vanilla and green bitter banana and oak.
When first opening the bottle I got lots of young whisky/new make notes which disappointed me somewhat... but after leaving the bottles for a few days to breathe a bit, it settles down and produces a nice profile.
Enjoyable, though it suffers a bit from being only 40% abv... 46% in the future, please HP?
83/100! ...and that's mainly because of the 40% abv
Interested in more Highland Park reading and reviews? why not have a look at my HP special here.
It contains reviews of 10 different expressions incl. the Magnus-trilogy
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