In Partnership with Highland Park
To understand Highland Park, you need to understand Orkney.
Orkney is a series of 70 islands off the north coast of the Scottish mainland. Here, you’ll find the Kirkwall distillery, the home of Highland Park’s outstanding single malt whiskies, which are shaped by Orkney’s unique environment, dynamic landscapes and invigorating weather.
Let’s start with the environment. Orkney has a cool climate that remains remarkably mild and steady year-round. Thanks to its location (roughly the same latitude as the southern tip of Greenland), the 22,000 residents here enjoy long days, wondrous summer sunsets, and a few “nightless” evenings. In the winter, there’s a chance to spot the Northern Lights.
But when you visit Orkney, you’ll first notice the wind. It’s so bracing that trees find it difficult to grow — instead, the landscape becomes dotted with heather, a low-growing evergreen shrub. That heather imparts an undeniably aromatic, subtly smokey note to the peat sourced sustainably and exclusively at Hobbister Moor by Highland Park.
That peat makes up part of the flavor and character in every dram of Highland Park’s whisky, which is later enriched by its maturation in a careful selection of sherry-seasoned oak casks. Those casks (naturally) provide the color you’ll see in every pour.
Most importantly, Highland Park is shaped by the people of Orkney and the Kirkwall-based distillery. It takes a certain type of person to live that far off the mainland. And that type of person is best exemplified by Highland Park’s founder, Magnus “Mansie” Eunson, a local church officer and part-time whisky smuggler, who, after years of hiding bottles under his pulpit, obtained his first whisky-making license in 1798.
You’ll find that mix of resourcefulness, creativity and tradition still thriving today at Highland Park (which currently utilizes the motto “More Orkney Than Ever”). But the best way to experience their whisky is by drinking it. Thankfully, the distillery recently launched a pack of its core range of 12-, 15- and 18-year-old single malts. The whisky arrives in bright, contemporary new packaging that pays tribute to its island home and the distillery, with heather-flecked labels, a subtle wood-grain pattern and an updated glass bottle shape that better showcases the liquid within. Rest assured, the whiskey remains the same exceptional liquid that Highland Park is known and respected for.
If you’re like me, you’ve tried Highland Park at some point in your life (I currently have a bottle of their Cask Strength No. 5 on my desk at my home office, where I’m doing “research”). And I’ll certainly never turn down the rare chance to sip on the distillery’s 54-year-old expression. But as far as a premium single malt that I can get pretty easily (see below)? I’ll stick with the core range.
There’s a subtly smokey sweetness within the Highland Park portfolio, but each core age-statement release has nuances. The 12 is zesty, full of heather, honey, orange, praline and cacao. The 15, a Double Gold winner at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, offers notes of citrus, cinnamon, vanilla and a bit of tropical fruit. The full-bodied 18, once named the “Best Spirit in the World,” features a beguiling mix of sweet smoke, cherry and chocolate.
If you can’t make it to Orkney, you can still get a sense of its dynamic landscapes and invigorating weather. Be one of the first to order the new core pack of Highland Park at a retailer near you starting April 1st. Even 200+ years later, you’ll find that their whisky remains a breath of fresh (Orkney) air.
If you would like to learn more about Highland Park, please visit their website and become a member of The Inner Circle to be the first to know about new pack exclusives and more.
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