Highland Park 10 Year Old - For Netherlands

Bottled especially for the Netherlands in 35cl bottles. On the back it mentions that no colouring was used, but nothing about the filters. Matured for ten years in sherry casks.

Nose: creamy butter, toasted oak, broccoli, bramble jam, dry haystacks and a little musk and woodpolish. With water the spirit gets stronger and more waxy herbal notes appear, empty oildrums/tar and the smoke becomes more prominent. Later a bit of nutty smells and cinnamon.

Palate: Very soft, sweet arrival with custard vanilla cake but the falvors come fast. creamy grain buttercookies, bitter lime rind and fresh herbs like mint, bergamot and koriander. Heathery peat and gentle smoke.

Finish: a very soft glow from the alcohol. Buckets of butterscotch and salty liquorice/salmiak notes. It leaves you with damp wood, peat and coal ash.

The flavors are pretty nice, but the low alcoholic content leaves me a bit unimpressed. I think the barrels used in this one were not so active anymore so the development stops fairly quickly and the finish is not very long, the nose is the best part. Still a very gentle Scotch; not overly complex so nice for in the afternoon. Remember that for the price of this 35cl version, you can get a full bottle of Finlaggan or Ledaig NAS...

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