
March 31, 2016

Highland Park Ice or Ace?

Sorry about yet another utterly stupid headline. Shame? Yes I feel shame, I should leave those kinds to traffic whores… But right, Highland Park Ice. Completely baffled. We’ll try it, but first, a serious opponent of similar age and strength. Just to be on the safe side…

Highland Park 18 yo 1997/2015 (56.7%, The First Editions, refill hogshead, cask #ref HL12099)

We’ve already found quite a few glories within this nice Hunter-Laing-affiliated range. Colour: dark straw. Nose: cider apples, limestone, liquorice wood, broken branches, grass, green tea, grapefruit peel, lamp oil, orange blossom honey, perhaps heather honey, a touch of iodine and mercurochrome, and a wee sake-like touch. A well-chiselled HP, it seems! With water: gets a little smokier and more coastal. Some kelp burning in the distance. Mouth (neat): it’s a sharp, very punchy one, very grassy, chalky, greatly bitter, with bitter oranges and green pepper, more cider apples (you can’t quite eat them), and more liquorice wood. Very green, a style that I enjoy a lot, even if it’s not HP’s sexiest side. With water: excellent, citrusy, a notch rounder but not round at all (hey?)… A very zesty Highland Park, greatly spirit-driven. Finish: long, sharp, precise, citrusy and grassy, with a bitter/mineral aftertaste. Comments: excellently chiselled and sauvignony, as they say in Sancerre. Perhaps a tad simple, because it was probably slow in wood, but what a distillate! SGP:362 - 88 points.

Highland Park 17 yo 'Ice Edition' (53.9%, OB, 30,000 bottles)

HP's new flubber. A limited edition of thirty thousand bottles, that sounds a little oxymoronic, doesn’t it. I won’t comment on the strange Valhalla-ish story, or on the hefty price, or on the bizarre flea-market-ready packaging… Because it’s all so ‘different’… And because some earlier extravagant ‘Viking’ bottlings by HP have been pretty much to my liking. So, let’s focus on the liquid if you don't mind … Colour: dark straw. Nose: we’re well in the same family and same style, this Ice is just a notch rounder, with a little more vanilla, perhaps. And certainly more menthol. Yes, there’s quite a lot of menthol and pinesap, but the whole remains pretty austere. With water: same differences, and perhaps a little more sour wood. More bubblegum as well after ten minutes. Mouth (neat): we’re oh-so very close to the 1997 by HL! Same grassy, cidery, herbal, bitter style, same Seville oranges, green wood, green pepper… And snuff. The Vikings again! With water: water reveals more sweet oaky flavours, around coconut oil, but that works very well here. Mint. Finish: quite long, a tad rounder, with some honeys and some barley water. Always a little coconut in the aftertaste, which is globally fruitier. Comments: all in all, this one’s rather rounder and sweeter, probably thanks to some more active wood, but the cores are the same. It’s a tie, same score. SGP:452 - 88 points.

No winner? Let’s try to find one amongst the older glories…

Highland Park 27 yo 1968 (43%, Hart Brothers, Finest Collection, +/-1995)

We had a 26/1968 by HB back in 2007, and that one was almost perfect. Colour: red amber. Nose: indeed, we have a winner. Many honeys, many precious woods, many soft spices, and many dried fruits, what a combination! I won’t quote them all (figs, like, manuka, like, cedar wood, like…) and rather focus on the tinier bits. Such as these hints of myrtle, or the peonies in full bloom, or the old amontillado, or the tobaccos, or the walnut wine, or these touches of dark pollen… It is a perfect nose, akin to that of some very great old cognac de propriétaire. Mouth: amazing! Only the tiny drying oaky touches make it maybe not totally and utterly stellar, but we’re well in the style of the luminous official ‘John Goodwin’ (and subsequent bottlings, such as the 50). Astounding honeys, dried fruits, precious oils and saps, herbs, oriental spices, oranges… I know, I’m being very generic now, please excuse me, but this is simply another example of a great-great malt whisky from the golden decade. And there are kumquats! Finish: long despite the lower strength, amazingly complex, and perfectly jammy, spicy, and herbal. A great example of a whisky with a worthy finish, which is more and more difficult to find these days. Because mind you, it’s in the finish that you find all the flaws, such as excessive youth, excessive oak, and whatnot. You’re right, even excessive prices (that leave bitter tastes). Comments: an old bottle of ‘Dragon’ quality, if that rings a bell. We have a winner! SGP:561 - 93 points.

(With many thanks to Patrick M.!)

Check the index of all Highland Park I've tasted so far