Highland Park Dark Origins

For more than two centuries, Highland Park has been distilling whisky unique to the windswept wilds of Orkney — an archipelago of some 70 islands, characterised by rich pastures, a temperate microclimate, and heathery peat. Highland Park’s particular peat, cut from the distillery’s own grounds, is part of what lends the whisky its characteristically soft smoke, and honeyed sweetness – imbuing the spirit with the very earth of Orkney.

Dusty baking spices and cocoa at first, cinnamon, vanilla, dates. Coffee cream Revels (possibly a couple of the orange ones too), a touch of blackcurrant/liquorice, plus butterscotch and an interplay between milk and dark chocolate. Sweet, fragrant peat emerges with nutty melted milk chocolate and a little orange alongside some pastries. Long and sweet, a little dry chocolate, just a hint of that heather smoke, then salivating.