Highland Park Magnus

Welcome to the next generation of Highland Park NAS whisky.... We could go round-n-round on the merits of No Age Statement whisky. I will concede that it’s a necessary evil due to the meteoric rise in popularity of whisky (and spirits in general). Well, this is what we have to deal with now: youthful, harsh stock mixed with lower and lower amounts of well-aged goodness. Some distilleries are handling it well, some not so much. Sadly, I think Highland Park is slipping towards the latter. (Steps down from the soapbox) This particular offering: Magnus is a NAS whisky named in honor of HP’s owner, Magnus Eunson, who is a direct descendant of the Viking lineage that settled Orkney. His namesake whisky is composed of juice from first-fill American sherry casks and ex-bourbon barrels. It’s an industry minimum 40% ABV and currently is exclusive to North America. It’s yellow gold and leaves hearty water droplets all around the glass when you swirl it. The nose is predominantly sherry and oak with little to no smoke, even after 15-20 minutes of intermediate swirling. The palate is pretty sweet with subtle hints of chocolate and smoke. It gives away its lack of age rather quickly- it’s harsher than I expected and finishes with a lightening quickness. I actually think I’d bump it if it would just hang back for a minute or two. It’s just gone so quickly. What happened? Ahh, drats... Overall, it’s disappointing in every aspect except one- price point. This bottle can be had for $40-45. That’s awesome. The sad part is that they are using this youthful juice for this instead of letting it age gracefully. It makes me sad this stuff could turn into 18yo sauce if given the chance. But, as it is, I think a solid 3-3.25 stars is warranted. Thanks for offering me a taste, @Telex Glad I got a chance to run this one through it’s paces. Cheers.

Very nice NAS HP expression. The price for value is over the top! This easily tastes like or better than any age stated variety costing upwards of $50USD. My new low cost go-to whisky.

Nose: citrus (orangey), vanilla, sweet maple, rich. Taste: cinnamon, yellow cake, nutty, sweet vanilla. Rounded. Dry.