Highland Park 25 Year

Nose - Sherry notes, a touch of brine, salt, peat, a very craft baked bread. This is the nose of scotch, it's got everything you'd get in almost any top expression. If you love peat, there's a drop or two of it. If you love sherry, that's here in full force. The malt notes give it balanced sweetness. Taste - Oak and vanilla up front and then give way to sherry fruits, spices, and then finishing with some peat and overwhelming just oak leathers and antique furniture. Water brings out more of the fruits and moves the sweet vanilla notes back. Finish - this just heats the mouth with oak spice, sherry, and it just has a nice friendly old oak finish. HP 25 has everything, a reasonable ABV, great mouth feel, a bit of peat, great sherry, and that old oak and leather finish. If you're looking to take the step into 25 year old scotch and spend into that 400+ barrier I can't think of a better "starter" scotch to get there. It's just a complete experience of the world of scotch. I can see why some have given this a perfect score and why I have friends who buy multiple bottles a year. For me I'm just waiting a bit more peat or a bit more sherry for a 5. The middle of the road direction HP takes makes it the most approachable and step into the higher end pool but for me the 5's are more focused on one area and they perfect at that.