Highland Park 21 y/o - Archives - Orkney 1998 - 52,6%
Photo taken somewhere in Stuttgart
The Archives series was founded by the Whiskybase Team, who released a few really good bottlings in the past. Looks like the dutchmen from Rotterdam are having a soft spot for fishes and birds. A 21 years old Highland Park matured in refill oak (mind the bright colour), the basic conditions could definitely be worse.
Nose
Fresh bread dough with salt, fresh oxygen, wet rocks and splashes of lemons. Wait, we are not in Campbeltown are we?! Okay, whiffs of heather honey are hauling us back northwards. It's a very fresh and elegant nose. Speaking in advertising language, it's more a Freya than an Odin. Not so complex, but precise and as close as you can get to the distillery DNA.
With water: No further development.
Palate
Odin strikes back! The first impression is very powerful and dense. Smoked and salted honey with lemons, almonds and freshly cut heather. Pure HP DNA. A bit sharp though. Feels almost like a peppery young Talisker now. Tricky stuff. With water: Still austere, but the honey note gets stronger.
Finish
Longer than a russian winter, with a beautiful bitterness of lemons and grapefruits, and a slight residue of ashes. This is the best part of the trip, like Jim Morisson used to say.
Rating
It doesn't happen so often, that the palate beats the nose. In this case the finish really lifts up the whole picture. It's a pretty solid HP, very close to the distillate. Considering the price we could almost call this a bang for your buck. Well done Whisky Base Team. We are balancing on a knife-edge between 87 and 88. Since the sharpness was slightly too much, we tip to
