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Highland Park 12 Year Old

You'll always remember you're first

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@jmende1Review by @jmende1

2nd Jul 2010

0

Highland Park 12 Year Old
  • Nose
    ~
  • Taste
    ~
  • Finish
    ~
  • Balance
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  • Overall
    85

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

This is the first bottle I bought. I'm a novice, but I'm currently feeding a small obsession with scotch. Before ever tasting a dram, I read many many articles (online and offline) about the subject and became quite intrigued. I knew that if I developed a scotch habit, it would be a costly one, and one I would have to be patient with. I went to a tasting in a very notable scotch bar here in NYC. I tried about 6 drams there. None that I could justifiably spend money on as my first bottle. After about 2 hours in PJ wine and liquor in Inwood, (and reading many articles) I decided this was the scotch for me.

Pre dilution Nose: gentle smoke, five spice, salt, dark cherries Flavor: wood smoke, vanilla on the finish. Full bodied, and very slighly sweet on the finish, but a saltiness that creeps up. The smoke reminds you of its presence and beckons you to not forget that its there.

Diluted: Nose: sweet, August spice, Late summer squash, sweet potatoes, dark chocolate covered cherries Flavor: molasses, or burnt honey, grainy (blistered corn). Salty presence, pleasantly aggressive on the tongue (asserts its presence when welcome in a rounded tongue). Spicy finish (hints of cinnamon, clove). Medium finish. The smoke is muted a bit after dilution and the salt is prominent.

Season: It's probably best to have this dram when its not super hot outside. I'd say early fall to early winter.

Food pairing: App: goat cheese brulee, bacon crumble Main: Chili. enough said. Dessert: Honey sorbet, banana brulee (there goes that again)

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1 comments

@jdcook
jdcook commented

IMHO, this and the Talisker 10 year old are the two single malts that indicate breadth of palate. I've got a couple of friends who love big heavy Islays, but the HP 12 and the Talisker 10 are a bit 'wimpy' - and they can't stand anything lighter at all. And I know plenty of people for whom the HP and Talisker are too heavy and powerful (meaning they will never go anywhere near an Islay dram). If you like either of these, it means you probably have wide ranging tastes, and will probably end up enjoying a wide range of whiskies.

In other words, your scotch obsession really ain't going to be cheap. Welcome to the club!

14 years ago 0