OVERALL RATING
tic-peat/””> famously heathery peat saturated by eons of salt spray. Only about 20% of the malt used to make Highland Park’s whisky is floor malted; the remainder is unpeated and sourced from other suppliers. Most expressions (including Highland Park 12, the focus of this review) are aged primarily in sherry casks. Highland Park’s older expressions regularly win hyperbolic awards like “Best Spirit in the World” and “World’s Best Single Malt,” with the 25 years old recently being recognized with the first 100 point score at the Ultimate Spirits Challenge. So how does the Highland Park 12– the distillery’s flagship single malt – stack up against its illustrious siblings? Appearance: Ripe, rosy apricot in color with medium viscosity. Nose: Notes of warm hay, citrus zest, white grape, orange blossom, and rose give an immediate impression of a late-summer garden. Peat aroma is very mild, expressing itself primarily as a kind of salty earthiness, like a flowerbed in full bloom after being fertilized with seaweed. . Sweet marzipan and something sort of like…celery? in the mid
Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.
Margarett Waterbury is the author of "Scotch: A Complete Introduction to Scotland's Whiskies" and a full-time freelance writer and editor specializing in the beverage industry. Her work has graced the pages of numerous publications, including Whisky Advocate, Food and Wine, Spirited Magazine, Artisan Spirit, Edible Seattle, Sip Northwest, Civil Eats, Travel Oregon, and many others. She also boasts editorial experience as the former managing editor of Edible Portland and as a co-founder and former managing editor of The Whiskey Wash. In recognition of her talent, Margarett received the Alan Lodge Young Drinks Writer of the Year award in 2017 and was awarded fellowships for the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers in 2017 and 2019.
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