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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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May 15, 2018 |
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Another name that we’re visiting pretty often. There’s some new G&M with this lovely ultra-classic new livery… |
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Highland Park 13 yo 2004/2018 (60%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice, Cask Strength, first fill sherry, cask #3812, 655 bottles) 
They’re now adding whiskies such as this HP CS to their CC series. Colour: gold. Not dark sherry. BTW we’ve learnt while at the bodegas (where they season sherry casks for the whisky industry) that G&M are always asking for ‘bungs on the side’ and not ‘on the top’, like some have in their gigantic palletised warehouses. Nose: I have the feeling that recent HPs are geared towards Springbank – not saying they’re doing that willingly – and this is a good example, with many a medicinal concoction, some clay, mud, crushed chalk, grasses, ointments… Now it’s certainly a little fruitier as well. Nice honeyed touches, and a moderate sherry. Fino type? With water: gets wonderfully mineral. Wet plaster, limestone after a rain, sourdough… Mouth (neat): sharp and really unusual. Chewing on your cigar, eating burnt raisins, quaffing old style orange liqueurs, drinking mead… With water: the honeyed side gets bigger. Some kind of lemon and honey pie, with raisins on the top. Panettone, perhaps. Finish: long, with a little pepper, and always this chalky side. Comments: I think this is extremely good. Big bold young HP, well in the magic coastal triangle (Springbank, Clynelish, Highland Park).
SGP:462 - 87 points. |
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Highland Park 18 yo 1999/2018 (55.6%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice, Cask Strength, first fill bourbon, cask #4265, 210 bottles) 
This one was distilled on a Monday, but does that matter? Some say runs are longer on Mondays and shorter on Fridays, but I’m sure that’s a myth. Colour: straw. Nose: now! Bandages, chalk, diesel oil, then quinces and tangerines, as well as Jaffa cakes and finger biscuits (dipped in Champagne - no). With water: more chalk, grass, fresh almond paste, kelp, vanilla… Mouth (neat): perfect, just perfect. Resinous, chalky, grassy, honeyed. Green bananas, ginger, turmeric… You’d really believe this was made in Campbeltown. With water: swims like a champ (who’s up these days? Oh let’s keep Mark Spitz as our reference swimmer, if you don’t mind). Finish: long, rather bright, with some orange blossom honey and a spoonful of eucalyptus-led cough syrup. Comments: brilliant distillate from a respectful barrel. Perfect combo.
SGP:562 - 88 points. |
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Highland Park 18 yo 1999/2018 (56%, Gordon & MacPhail, Connoisseurs Choice, Cask Strength, first fill bourbon, cask #4262, 202 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: we’re very close, obviously, but this one seems to be a tad rounder and more floral at first, then a little more medicinal and pine-y. Pine needles near a beach, toothpaste, chlorophyll... With water: it’s funny how it makes the other one fatter, while it wasn’t fat whisky at all. Whiffs of green chartreuse. Mouth (neat): same comments, this is a pine-ier cask, tenser, zestier, more angular… I’m not sure I don’t like this one even better, to tell you the truth. With water: amazing herbal development. Wormwood, aniseed, peppermint, liquorice, dill, poppy seeds… Finish: a tad bitter but I like that. Stuff some add to cocktails, quinine, mint leaves, oyster leaf… Some salty lime in the aftertaste. Comments: I know I said the previous one was brilliant, but this is even more brilliant.
SGP:462 - 89 points. |
87 88 89, wasn’t that just perfect? But let’s move on… |
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Inganess Bay 18 yo 2000/2018 (52.7%, Maltbarn for Limburg, bourbon, 180 bottles)
Inganess Bay, that’s near Kirkwall. So… Colour: straw. Nose: it’s a gentler HP, more rounded, floral, with some acacia honey (rather that very aromatic ones, heather…) custard, mirabelles, perhaps Turkish delights, white chocolate… Now don’t get me wrong, this is not Glenfiddich. With water: a wee rubbery touch, perhaps. New bicycle inner tube. Mouth (neat): another rather perfect one, bigger this time, with these typical wee bitterish touches, orange skins, pine liqueur, Bénédictine, candied angelica, a touch of butterscotch… With water: raisins stewed in honey and mint sauce. A tiny touch of rubber again. Finish: long, rather oily. Grape pip oil and orange honey. Comments: excellent, as expected.
SGP:452 - 87 points. |
Well, we haven’t found a 90 yet, have we. Let’s try that and … resort to drastic measures… |
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Highland Park (98°proof, John Scott, pure malt, +/-1950) 
John Scott, now John Scott & Miller, are grocers and ironmongers in Kirkwall, Orkney, and were often having some brilliant ‘own’ HPs, not to be mistaken for Robertson’s well-known Dragons. We’ve already tried a few of those but no need to say that this is the rarest of them all. When was this distilled? Most certainly way before WWII! Colour: white wine – even better. Nose: it’s the parentage that’s striking, this is almost the very same distillate, with some chalk, clay, menthol, grass, engine oil, pine needles, grape pip oil, carbolinium, chartreuse, plaster, saltpetre, mushrooms… The freshness is extremely impressive – and yes the bottle’s pedigree is impeccable. Mouth: sweet Vishnu! Another game now, this had both more width and more profoundness than contemporary distillates, while the mouth feel is almost thick. A drop of retsina, come crème de menthe, some salty soy sauce, beeswax, a touch of vieille prune (old damson eau-de-vie), a wee bit of tobacco, and then more and more ‘sweeter’ umami. Sweet and sour prune reduction, Korean wine, quite some pepper, it would just develop for hours, this is totally incredible. It’s also getting peatier by the minute, we’re moving towards old Ardbeg. It’s huge spirit! Finish: absolutely endless, you could almost call it Dostoiewskian whisky. Amazing feeling of oiled smoked brine in the aftertaste. Olives on Orkney? Comments: incredible whisky. I suppose someone had selected a ‘best’ cask back then. You could even believe it was concentrated at some point, using a long-forgotten method that did not, mind you, involve neither new oak nor wine. But what?
SGP:464 - 94 points. |
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Old Highland Malt Whisky – Orkney - 1894/1918 (Morten & Co., New York)
An amazing whisky from Orkney, bottled in 1918 by or for long-gone wine and spirit merchants Morten & Co. of 58 Broad St., New York (earlier Beaver St., also 77 Broad St.). That’s in the financial district of Manhattan. Now it doesn’t mention the distillery, so this could be either Scapa, Stromness, or Highland Park indeed, unless either of those was silent in 1894. Will check that when I have time. No one will ever know for sure, but why should we care? It is always extremely moving to taste such old whiskies, especially when you know that they couldn’t be stinky fakes, a situation that does not happen very often, most sadly (when we’re seeing what our good friends in China or even at posh airports along the Gulf are buying these days, we just cry – no we don’t do schadenfreude). Anyway, no ABV on this, as was customary back then. |
Colour: gold. Nose: you could think you’re nosing sweeter olive oil, really. As well as a barrel of pipe tobacco and a large ‘monk’s head’ of old Pu-erh tea. After around five minutes, you would think this is liquid beeswax blended with seawater, with just one drop of Woolite. Really, there’s something pleasantly ‘chemical’ to this. And do not get me wrong, this is fantastic. Mouth: get-out-of-here, this is exceptional. You can feel that the spirit’s body did prevent it from getting stale or tired, same thing that happens with acidic old Chenins, if you like. It’s hard to describe, though, I’d say I’m finding grapefruit juice (chenin, I told you), walnut oil, moderately smoky tea, Maggi and miso soup, and perhaps drops of ink and linseed oil. It’s reminiscent of G&M’s Caol Ilas distilled in the 1960s, if you like, with pretty similar body and style. As for the strength, it rather feels like 45% vol., not less. Finish: impressively long, rather pine-y, salty, and very oily. Touches of ginseng in the aftertaste. Comments: immortal whisky! I couldn’t tell you whether this was Highland Park, Scapa or Stromness, but now that I can brag about the three different Stromnesses I could taste, I would say Stromness was even smokier than this, while Scapa was possibly lighter, even in the late 19th century. So, Highland Park indeed?...
SGP:464 - 91 points. |
And now, a HP that was distilled in the late 18th century… I am joking! Have a good day or night… |
(Emmanuel and Olivier, merci mille fois!) |
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