John Scott's 35 Year Old 'Supreme' Blended Scotch Whisky (43%, John Scott & Millers, 675 bottles, 2003)
A blend of Highland Park from 1965 and 1968 with some 37 year old Invergordon. I know, you might have wondered what was 'wrong' with the HP, but who knows. This was firmly within the age of innocence. Colour: deep mahogany. Nose: I mean, I don't know what I expected. This is exquisite old school sherry. Roasted walnuts, cherry liqueur, Christmas cake drenched in old Armagnac, rancio, old leather and green walnut liqueur. There's also some quite clear Orkney peat sloshing about in the depths, all roots, earth, medicines and dried up dark fruits. A gorgeous nose. Mouth: quite exquisite on arrival. Pickled dates, rancio, ancient balsamic and oloroso. Also Maggi, dried seaweed, lemon cough drops, dark chocolate with sea salt, touches of game and ancient pinot noir. Outrageously decadent and has deep connotations with some very, very old Grande Champagne cognacs. I don't really detect any grain whisky if I'm honest. Finish: long, deeply earthy, perfectly drying, threads of dry herbal peat and still these wonderfully persistent notes of pickled walnut, rancio and green herbal liqueurs. Comments: was this actually a blend? Did they just… lie? I mean, this was the 'age of innocence' after all. Glorious 'old' whisky in the very best sense.
SGP: 563 - 91 points.

Highland Park 20 yo 2000/2021 (58.1%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #4.266 'The Dark Lord Of Stromness', 1st fill barrel, 202 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: rather an active barrel I would, but excellent so, lots of gorse flower, coconut milk and natural sweetness that goes towards fresh pineapple, fruit salad juices and heather honey. Indeed, it's a lighter, sweeter and more playful HP on first impressions. In the background I find some coastal flowers, pollens, heather beer and touches of eucalyptus and tiger balm. Elegant and very good. With water: recalls Euthymol toothpaste, dried flowers, a slightly chalkier note now as well and touches of sandalwood and mineral oils. Mouth: quite direct on arrival, split between sweet coconut, flambeed banana, soft wood spices, natural tar, new leather, mint, eucalyptus, soft medical embrocations and mead. Indeed, there's a nice sense of honey, pollens and wildflowers about it. A very soft vein of herbal peat smoke in the background. With water: caraway, lanolin, tea tree oil, salted almonds and a wonderfully herbal waxy and honeyed profile emerging. A slightly more pronounced peat note, more hessian, smoked olive oil, eucalyptus and dried herbs. Getting drier in a rather brilliant way now. Finish: long, herbal, slightly mentholated, gently coastal, notes of sandalwood and dried flowers. Comments: I particularly enjoy the way the cask was dominant when neat, but yielded to a wonderfully expressive, lighter touch HP profile when reduced. The kind of dram you could have a lot of fun with if you've a pipette and some water to hand.
SPG: 563 - 89 points.

Highland Park 14 yo 1991/2006 (55.5%, OB 'Exceptional Cask' for Switzerland, cask #4888, sherry)
Colour: ruby / mahogany. Nose: a hug of sherry! Big, enveloping, dark sticky fruits, aged Armagnac, stewed prunes, cherry throat sweets, balsamico, dried mint, leather and leaf mulch. Feels superbly pure, clean and fresh, but also extremely dense, sticky and resinous. Takes no prisoners! With water: starts to open now with notes of praline, salted dark chocolate, fruity black coffee, Maggi and black olive bread with rosemary. Mouth: a powerful and direct arrival! Salted liquorice, fresh espresso, natural tar, dates, damson compote, root beer and pomegranate molasses. Some meaty notes come through as well, top class Iberico and cured game meats with a little very old pinot noir. With water: pure salted Dutch liquorice now! Herbal ointments, cough syrup, long aged mead, aniseed liqueur, natural tar liqueur, maraschino juices and more impressions of root beer and sarsaparilla. Finish: long, increasingly beefy and gamey, tarry, peppery, seared steak, more aniseed and liquorice and aged cherry sour beer. Comments: quite bonkers! I suspect parts of this are technically not perfect and I've probably just been disarmed by the sheer sherried audacity on display. But I can't help but feel this, with about 20-30 years in the bottle, will be totally stunning!
SGP: 663 - 90 points.

Highland Park 9 yo 1988/1998 (59.5%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #4.57)
Colour: white wine. Nose: peppery and slightly leathery, with some impressions of clotted cream, sourdough starter, breads, ales, chalk and an increasing mineral quality. One of these drier and straighter HP profiles that makes you think of some bone dry riesling. With water: not much difference, in fact it perhaps loses some definition now. Mouth: young, gristy, bready, mineral and with touches of baked vegetables and white flowers. Perhaps a touch of cardboard as well. With water: same issue as on the nose, starts to fall apart slightly. Just feels a bit young and grizzly really. Finish: medium, a bit hot, some white pepper, some cardboard, plain toast - bit boring really. Comments: I would say that almost every single batch of modern HP I've tried recently from the indies is an improvement upon this. Probably just bottled far too young.
SGP: 451 - 78 points.

Highland Park 1984/2004 (57.9%, OB for Germany, cask #45, sherry, 528 bottles)
Colour: light amber. Nose: a different style of sherry, in fact it really does stand out quite sharply against these more recent examples. This is much more on citrus rinds, damp cellar earth, flints, minerals and tobacco pouches. Many subtle notes such as dried mushroom powder, liquid seasonings, crystallised grapefruit, kumquat and even pomegranate. Quite unusual in some respects. With water: vase water, white truffle, dried mint, eucalyptus resin and stem ginger. Mouth: rather sharp attach on bitter herbs, grasses, walnut oil, cedar wood, pine resin and cough mixtures. Hessian, leaf mulch and bitter lemon with tonic water. A bit of an unusual profile I think, various red fruity notes that make you think of stuff like Tizer and grenadine. With water: very spicy now! Hessian, chilli powder, liquorice root, aniseed, bitter herbal extracts and various stuff like soot, cigar ends and wormwood. Finish: long, tannic, bitter, more marmalade, herbal, sooty, saline and with a big, punchy spiciness lingering. Comments: I actually find this one rather tough, although there's a lot of entertainment to be had and quality is no doubt high, I'm just not sure I'd reach for a second glass too quickly.
SGP: 473 - 87 points.

Highland Park 1981/2010 (56%, Mackillop's Choice, cask #6085)
I remember totally adoring the 1980 43% from Mackillop's Choice that I tired recently (WF92), let's see how this one measures up… Colour: gold. Nose: honeyed sweetness alongside herbal cough lozenges, coastal air and very gentle threads of peat smoke. Beautifully aromatic and intricately herbal, further soft medicinal notes and things like wintergreen and tiger balm. Bags of distillery character and totally enchanting. With water: gets sharper and displays more tension, tiny touches of acetic balsamic, mineral salts, leather, many more subtle medicinal vibes and damp hessian cloth. Indeed, with time it seems to just become more 'dunnagey'. Mouth: oily in texture upon arrival and full on resinous herbal peat, salted honey, aged mead, herbal cough medicines once again and things like fir wood resins, camphor, wee briny aspects and mineral oils. Outstanding! With water: perfect now! Wonderfully oily and resinous in texture, soft oily peat smoke, camphor, hessian, natural tar, herbal medicines and wee sooty touches. Finish: long, showing great balance between salinity and oiliness, more herbs, soot, camphor, pickling brine and medicines. Comments: There are many superb modern Highland Parks, especially from the indies. But what sets this apart is that you feel this whisky has real soul, an attribute that extends beyond just technical quality. This is quite different from the 1980 we tried, but I'm not sure it's any less of a whisky.
SGP: 663 - 92 points.

Highland Park 24 yo 1980/2004 (58%, OB for Park Avenue Liquors, cask #7366, sherry butt)
Colour: amber. Nose: a deep and unctuous old school sherry, wonderfully textural impressions of leather, saltiness, umami paste, game meats, natural tar and exotic hardwood resins. Hugely scented, weighty and extremely classy stuff! With time these aromas of game meats, treacle and salty dark chocolate become more pronounced and distinctive. Gorgeous nose! With water: mint, eucalyptus, menthol tobacco, cherry scented cough medicines, exotic hardwood resins and lapsing souchong tea. Keeps developing layers of complexity and many tiny wee aromas. Mouth: hugely syrupy arrival. Meaty, perfectly herbal, bitter, salty, rather a lot of salted almonds and toasted walnuts, green walnut liqueur and natural tar resins. Perfectly extractive, perfectly meaty and just brilliantly textural and fat in the mouth. There's also this undercurrent of herbal, resinous peat and syrupy medicines which is textbook old school Highland Park. With water: outstanding! We may have to call the anti-maltoporn brigade (it's been a while, have they changed numbers?), a perfect collision of bitterness, umami, salinity and gorgeous flavours of meats, walnuts, coffees, chocolates and spices. Finish: long, herbal, perfectly bitter, saline, spicy, salted Dutch liquorice, natural tar, herbal medicines and more of this resinous HP peat flavour. Comments: 1980 seems to be some kind of borderline vintage for Highland Park, not too sure later vintages were often this luminous or displayed quite the same peat flavour / profile. Anyway, this was a totally brilliant cask. Can't wait to go back to New York and buy a bottle from the good folk at Park Avenue Liquors… 
SGP: 563 - 92 points.

I feel we must be approaching our 600th Highland Park just about now, so let's make it something very cool and rather special. How about either of these very early SMWS bottlings…

Highland Park 1979/1991 (55.2%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, #4.10)
Colour: ruby mahogany. Nose: as they say in Alsace: YOWZERS! Serious, old school, deeply aromatic and scented sherry. Unctuous, dripping with rancio, natural tar, walnut liqueur, Irish coffee and even many crystallised exotic fruits. And of course the usual abundance of sultanas, figs, prunes and raisins as well. What's just wonderful is this simultaneous rustic side that makes you think of some wild and brilliant old Armagnacs. We could very well already be hopelessly lost in maltoporn territory! With water: not a huge change with water, except that it perhaps becomes slightly more aromatic, a few extra spices here, a few extra fruits there. But this is still a wall of rancio and deeply concentrated sticky darkness. Mouth: perfectly thick, stodgy, dark sherry that behaves like a combination of natural tar extract and molasses in your mouth. Stunning rancio, herbal and walnut liqueurs, Maggi, umami paste, black olives and aged cherry sour ale. Just outstanding! With water: developed more medicines, more elegantly tannic black teas, more earth, dates, damson preserve, tar, treacle and more bitter herbal liqueurs. Finish: long, perfectly bitter, almost sticky in texture, endlessly on rancio, tar, roasted nuts, molasses, concentrated dark fruits and more of these wonderful ancient armagnac vibes. Comments: The early days of the SMWS could probably be defined as an ocean of tooth-dissolving petrol, dotted with small archipelagos of some of the most unctuous and gorgeously dark sherried drams ever to grace glass. This is very silly whisky.
SGP: 763 - 93 points.

Highland Park 1974/1984 (60.2%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, # 4.1)
Speaking of petrol… Seriously though, it is always a total thrill to be able to try these very early drams from SMWS. Colour: white wine. Nose: youthful, pure and really rather peaty. It is indeed rather petrolic, with lots of brine, seawater, antiseptic, malt vinegar and medicines. There's also this impression of oiliness and textural weight about the distillate. Pretty superb! With water: opens up on a whole spectrum of various peat and medicine aromas. Bandages, gauze, mouthwash, aspirin, bonfire embers, tar, seawater and mercurochrome. Mouth: purity is the word! Huge arrival, all on white hot peat embers, natural tar extracts, seawater, pink grapefruit, preserved lemons, lanolin and herbal cough medicines. Raw, naked and brilliant distillate; bare bones Highland Park in all its glory. With water: chunky, chewy raw peat. Camphor, tar, iodine, TCP and creosote. Also brilliantly oily in texture. Finish: long, smoked olive oil, tar, pickling brine, camphor and hessian again. Also these herbal qualities in the aftertaste that seem always to be a hallmark of older style HP. Comments: a terrific demonstration of the foundational brilliance of Highland Park's distillate during this era. Not sure all batches were this peaty, but it's quite clear why so many of these older sherry casks developed into such total gems when this was the juice that was underpinning them. Once again, the flavour and profile of the peat feels quite distinct from other distilleries of this era.
SGP: 366 - 92 points.

Highland Park 34 yo 1973/2008 (49.6%, OB for German Orkney Adventure Tour, 42 bottles)
This cask appears to have been split, with the larger part being bottled as a 35 year old for something called 'The Nuance Group'. Who is the Nuance Group and where are they now? Guys, this is 2021, if ever the world needed some more nuance… Colour: gold. Nose: deeply honeyed and resinous at first, with many notes of wax polish, sea salt, crystallised green and exotic fruits, torches of yellow herbal liqueurs, tiny sooty inflections and things like sandalwood and mineral oils. Mouth: a rather glossy sheen of honeys and minerals on arrival. Softer salty things like dried seaweed, seawater and then nicely sharp notes of pink grapefruit and preserved lemon. Wonderfully fresh and with excellent complexity. These resinous herbal and crystallised fruit qualities persist as well. The key impression is one of freshness and what I can only describe as an 'aged coastal' theme. Over time it becomes wonderfully herbal and delicately medicinal, the feeling of peat flavour dissipating and sub-dividing beautifully with age. Finish: long, tense, leathery, mineral, salty and resinously herbal and fruity. Comments: textbook and excellent fully mature early 70s Highland Park I would say. The kind of whisky that you could quaff until the curtains come down on this silly Universe.
SGP: 563 - 91 points.

Highland Park 39 yo 1967/2006 (57.6%, OB for Saybrex International, 200 bottles)
Should be good. Colour: bright gold. Nose: this is just 100 year old yellow Chartreuse. Seriously, it's herbal wine matured for decades in glass. Natural sugars, roots, herbs, wormwood, verbena and lemon cough medicines. Astonishingly singular and precise in this style. With time it opens up a little more towards these extremely faded and ethereal peat tones, dried out and faded old medicines and ointments, the faintest rooty and dried out peat smoke. Embrocations, mineral salts, old leather and dried heather flowers. Honey with sea salt. Utterly exquisite. With water: becomes astonishingly fragrant, a whole meadow of dried flowers, dusty pollens, waxes, dried herbs. But also these superbly resinous notes, flower honey with sea salt, coastal air and ozone. Mouth: an astonishing fusion of ancient herbal liqueurs, very old peat, crystallised exotic fruits, citrus fruits, seawater, sandalwood. Just call the anti-maltoporn brigade please, tell them it's urgent! I'm almost loth to put water in it because this is just so fucking delicious! With water: best not discussed. Finish: endless, pure, salty, peaty, coastal, waxy and perfect! Comments: utterly stunning. This is why we are into whisky, and specifically why we're into Highland Park!
SGP: 664 - 94 points.