cascode
Highland Park 25 Year (Spring 2019)
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed
November 2, 2022 (edited January 26, 2023)
Nose: Honey that has been stored in an oak barrel, very light traces of vanilla, mild floral fragrances, enveloping dusky orange, apricot preserve, orange marmalade. Leather armchair, old oak sideboard and a hint of cigar smoke. As it rests it gains complexity and the delicate smoke note becomes a little more assertive.
Palate: Perfect arrival – slightly sweet, and gaining sweetness and depth as it unfolds. Stewed and fresh fruit, particularly blood orange and currants, but the sweetness is simmering and slow-burn, not bright and immediate. Chocolate and toffee in the development along with liquorice and prunes with just the lightest touch possible of peat smoke. There is a presence of spices and spicy herbs (mustard, cress, rocket and clove) and the texture is good, somewhat chewy, and with water it gains creaminess.
Finish: Medium/long. The palate fades gently into a lightly maritime aftertaste with echoes of the mustard spice note and cigar smoke.
A wonderful nose that is relaxed, urbane and rewarding. It has that dusky, dusty oxidised lignan quality that old whiskies typically show. The smoke is very reserved here, lacking any phenolic or guaiacol notes whatsoever, but the subtle cigar quality is pervasive. For some time after finishing the dram you have a definite mouth taste as of just having smoked one.
The palate has complexity, but not to the degree you might wish for. In some ways it is a limited profile but what is there is very good indeed. The finish is good.
Adding just a small dash of water mellows and broadens the entire experience. The dried orange and spice notes both gain softness and the texture becomes more silken. The finish gains a little heft, and there is the most interesting sensation when breathing out of genuinely feeling like you are smoking.
A lovely whisky, but if you have the good fortune to try this do not rush the experience. Give it at least 15 minutes in the glass to wake up, and if adding a drop of water (which you should) give it another 15 to recompose itself. Those are bare minimums - ideally sit, nose and ponder this for an hour before taking the first sip. There is nothing to be gained by haste and everything from patience.
Great stuff, but overpriced in my opinion. This is not light years ahead of the 18 year old, in fact it’s more like a sideways step than an advance, so I’m giving it the same rating.
Tasted from a 30ml sample generously provided by @DrRHCMadden
“Excellent” : 89/100 (4.75 stars)
999.0
AUD
per
Bottle
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@DrRHCMadden Yes, it’s the whiskies with extended length and depth of aftertaste that really stand out 👍
@cascode after a mere fraction of your experience I must say, the nose is the most powerful experience for me (as with all human memories I guess), but the finish is there in equal measure. I’ve started just leaving it next to me for 5-10 minutes before even picking it up, the ambient aromas are commonly different and really rev things up.
@DrRHCMadden Ha ha - no one has ever called me patient before 😆 Thing is, over time I’ve come to love the aroma of whisky above the flavour, by good margin, so it’s a genuine pleasure to sit and nose a dram for half an hour or more before sipping. I honestly don’t understand how folks can just dive into tasting after only a cursory nosing - they’re missing out on the best part.
@Ctrexman right there with you dude. This man clearly had the patience of a saint.
Oh I dont doubt the time improves the experience Im just too much of a dumbass to wait
@Ctrexman I just killed the bottle. Followed this wise wizards words. Let it sit for an obscene amount of time. Found a little more in it. Was excellent.
This sounds amazing.......I have trouble waiting 5 minutes for a pour though so Im sol
@cascode - hope you have something good lined up for #1000. Cheers! 🙂🥃🥃
@cascode and this is why you’re called “Oracle” . Incredibly insightful info—thanks!
@cascode great info. Thanks!
@PBMichiganWolverine Well, long story short, they just don’t make ‘em like they used to. Back in the day, very good quality sherry for drinking was exported from Spain to the UK in high quality oak casks. The sherry would sit in these “transport casks” for anywhere from six months to several years until eventually being bottled, and then the casks went to Scotland for coopering and use in maturing whisky. This situation ended in the late 1980s when Spanish law changed and sherry could only be exported in bottles or by road tanker. Because the supply of transport casks had dried up but new casks were needed by the whisky industry, bodegas began to produce “seasoned” oak casks to order. However the sherry used for this purpose is not the finest quality drinking sherry anymore. That is made in solera casks and huge wooden vats and then bottled or shipped without ever seeing a “regular” cask. The sherry used for seasoning is second grade stuff made just for that purpose. It is sometimes used repeatedly to season several batches of casks and eventually it is used to make vinegar or distilled to produce neutral spirit. It also sits in the casks for less time than it used to. Whenever you hear a distillery ambassador bragging about the “special relationship” they have with a sherry producer to make casks for them, all it means is that they have a contract. Yes, in some cases distilleries do order really good casks seasoned with top grade sherry, but it is incredibly expensive to do so. Also, to be fair, casks made specifically for maturing whisky are more consistent in quality nowadays. This does not mean that sherry itself has declined in quality – not at all, because great sherry for drinking is a different product. This does, unfortunately, mean that even if we all started drinking sherry again it would not improve the quality or quantity of available casks for whisky, and even if Spain changed the law it would still make no difference because no-one would go back to shipping in wooden casks.
@cascode why is that ( not seeing the Sherry cask quality)? Is it sheer demand outpacing supply? I would think it’s fairly easy to age the cask with Sherry. ( but I’m guessing )
@dhsilv2 I only have two other tastes for the Highland Park 25 listed in my journal. Both are from long before Distiller existed and as I only review things here that I actually have in front of me those notes won’t be transferred. However, in summary, the HP25 batch 2009 Lot 10 (I didn’t keep more specific details back then) that I tasted in 2010 scored 93/100 and the 1995 “Dumpy” bottle (no idea of the lot number) that I tasted in 1997 I gave 92/100. So if the current expressions have fallen from grace (which I think they have) they have not fallen far. Besides, don’t hold out any hope for the marque to improve because we will never, ever, again see the quality of sherry casks that were used to age scotch whisky back in the 20th century.
How does this compare with prior 25's? That's what I need before I buy at the 400-500 UK prices :/
Lovely review sir! Glad I could share this. I’ll be killing the bottle after siphoning off a final 30 ml to save this weekend I suspect. Definitely going to reflect on a lot of what you have said here. It is interesting that what I recall of the 18 (some 6 years ago though!) was that it was as good as this 25. Clearly HP doesn’t need much more aging to really excel.