Tastes

This Booker's batch is sweet & rich while wanting to turn tart on you. Tempered with only ⅓ tsp water. Smells like sweet corn, vanilla, nuttiness. Tastes of dark toffee, toasted coconut, faint peanuts, progressing to dried dark fruit sweet-sourness. Finishing a tad long with peppery oak and apple skins. This is one for the ages.

Non-chillfiltered and quite potent, this single malt smacks you upside the head to notice its character. A beautiful amber (not certain if colour is added), slender but slow legs. Shnoz: Grassy and fresh with a delayed ethanol kiss, faint heather. Buds: Dessert honeyed pears and flambéd peaches, big heathery and pungent maltiness, a tad creamy too. Coda: Lingering malt and heather with a dried fruit (fig?) pop. Fairly lasting I'd say. The 48% surely accentuates all the flavour you will perceive- which is much appreciated. This humble distillery with old roots that has changed hands several times stays true to their heritage and delivers an exceptional taste of what a Highland malt should evoke. It's scarce up in these parts so I snatch what I can and savour patiently til more would arrive!

This is the first Orkney Island single malt I taste. Haven't tried any previous iteration of HP. Nose: Floral and sweet, faint heather and mildly peaty Palate: Arrival is honeyed orchard fruits, then heathery and a brief saltiness backed by the touch of peat smoke again. I get a subtle toffee as well. Finish: The peatiness fades out quicker than I thought it might. More fragrant heather and something sweet persisting to a moderately dry end. An interesting enough dram to begin my peated malt journey. Although I have heard it said this whisky had once been more nuanced and a stellar value I am satisfied with the modern offering and quality for the price.