Highland Park Dark Origins

Fancy bottle, marketing-driven NAS presentation and a hefty price tag: why on earth would I review Highland Park Dark Origins? Because it's surprisingly good! Heavy sherry aroma with spices, baked apple and distant peat smoke greets the nose. I get raisins, dates, polished wood and, oddly enough, menthol cigarettes. The taste is sweet, then astringent, before the sweetness returns with walnuts, black tea and well-measured sherry cask influence. After a savory and mildly peaty finish, I must confess I am almost sad that this whisky has been discontinued. RATING: 3.9/5.0 stars ≙ 86 pts → FIRST-CLASS [-]

I swear that I am no where near a bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail, but the nose on this is eerily similar. Maybe also some lapsang souchong, as I usually also detect from Lagavulin 16. On the palate neat, it's a nice smoke, but I miss that oily mouth coat. That maybe from immaturity. Smelled a bit like a port, but the taste brought the peat. This is not super duper hot, just a little, so let's just drop a few small drops on this and see what happens. The intense chocolate fudge is still there, maybe even more so. The sherry finally comes through a bit more, which I wanted, without losing the pepper and peat. Better mouth feel, and less burn. With just a few drops of water, I'd say a 2.8-2.9 , so I'll round up a smidgen to a 3. Glad I tried it on vacation this week. The color says natural, but it is intensely dark. I wish I knew the ages of what's going on here.

The base HP is very very interesting treated with the sherry overtop. A wonderful discovery!

Very Smokey! Tobacco on the nose and finish.