Highland Park Riptide Single Cask Series Series

Late 2019 I noticed a proliferation of single-cask Highland Park releases. They seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and lacked the ostentatious, over the top Nordic packaging. Important Stats: 65.5% ABV (The distiller page has it listed incorrectly). Highest proof Scotch I've owned or even tried. 12 years old. Distilled 2005, Bottled 2018. 1st Fill European Oak Sherry Puncheon. Cask No. 5187. 568 bottles produced. On to the whisky. Nose: Not a strong peat presence. There is a bit of sea salt and seaweed, but the medicinal and smoky peaty features are replaced with sulfuric notes. I get that a lot with sherried HP. Some orchard fruit: apple, pear, and apricot. Plum, honeydew, and tangerine. A jam note. Caramel, toffee, graham cracker, brown sugar, and vanilla. Cinnamon red hots and oak. ABV? Oh yeah. No punches pulled here. Quality nose. Palate: Some peat smoke. And more sea salt. Sulfur disappears. Plum, raisin, date, fig, and prune. Coupled with the sea salt, it's very drying. I actually get a Saltine cracker note. Vanilla, caramel, and fudge. More tangerine and plum. Cola and vanilla. Apple and pear. Almond and walnut. A blast of cinnamon spice. Oak as well. Finish: Long-lasting. To say the least. It's a monster of a finish. Caramel and vanilla. And then as big of a hit of spice as you've ever had. Cinnamon.Times two. Clove, nutmeg, sea salt, and oak barrel spice. Hits like a bag of bricks. I like this one. And yet, I can completely understand why most wouldn't. It's hot as hell. It's rough, borderline abrasive. But it's also everything I'd like to experience in a Highland Park expression. We've got a respectable age statement, a great cask, and an amazing ABV. HP has recently been accused of being an all-frills brand. If that's your opinion, grab yourself a burlap bag of some quality single cask HP. This is the Booker's of Scotch. More specifically, I've noticed that the spice-oriented Booker's releases have bare the yellow labeling. Annis' Answer. Kentucky Chew. Dots' Batch. All three of these share characteristics with this one. This shares a lot of those key notes, For a peated Scotch, I'd choose one of the elite Islay expressions. For spice-forward-in-your-face whisk(e)y, I'm picking Booker's. But for this is something else altogether. Highland Park outdid themselves here. I think the lesson is that minimalist packaging and scrupulous distillation-maturation is a fantastic formula. Highland Park, you're on to something. Let's keep things moving in this directio.