Highland Park Cask Strength Release No. 1

Nose - pineapple, tangerine, lemon zest, vanilla bean, floral notes, honey, mild peat, peach, green apple, mushroom, tar, nutmeg, high ethanol burn. Taste - honey, tangerine, green apple, citrus zest, creamy vanilla, peach tea, floral notes, caramel, toffee, pineapple, mild peat, mushroom, nutmeg, baking spice, high alcohol bite, finishing long and with deep citrus (almost like biting into a lemon rind) and toffee notes. I was very excited to pick this up so early after the release. This begs for a bit of water to be added to open up the nose and flavors, as it’s very concentrated and closed off right from the bottle. Overall, I think this is a decent, but disappointing HP cask strength introduction into the American market. Unfortunately, the mushroom notes are a bit unwelcome, and it slightly misses the mark for me.