Highland Park Einar

Nose: Very light honey, citrus fruits, cigarette tobacco and black tea rather than smoke. This is one of the least smoky Highland Parks I’ve encountered. It is there, but you have to leave it to rest in the glass for a long time before it becomes apparent. Palate: Ah, there’s the smoke but it’s sooty rather than peaty. Brown sugar, orange marmalade, pepper, ginger, bitter tannin and salted plums. There is a sour note that persists and the texture is average. Finish: Fleeting. Blink and you miss it. The sour malt note from the palate and a little ashy smoke are the sum total. Dull, generic, almost ugly. This is everything you fear a TRE whisky will be. With time in the glass the nose does evolve and it is the best part of the experience. However it cruelly promises the same experience in the mouth but then the whisky betrays you. The palate never goes anywhere positive and instead gains an even greater over-brewed black tea note with time. I tried adding a dash of water but all it did was dilute the profile with no other benefit. Like the Highland Park “Harald” expression I recently reviewed, this was a grey-market 1 liter bottle originally issued exclusively for travel retail. Thankfully, unlike the Harald, this did not suffer the same cork degradation and tainting so at least it’s just as uninteresting as Edrington originally intended. Yawn. “Average” : 75/100 (2.5 stars)

A bit harsh with spicy tast and little smokiness. The tast is linear too.

Very light, slightly peated