Highland Park 16 Years Old

In the days before 16yo Highland Parks were sold in wooden designer containers and fancy bottles, they were part of the regular range and available for travel retail at your local airport. Although they came at a low price and a large volume (1l bottles), there are barely any reviews available for this whisky. (not even on this site) The 16yo apparently did not catch on and was subsequently withdrawn from the stores and pretty much forgotten.

The same goes for this bottle, I bought it in a regular whisky shop, but according to the bottle code, it was distilled back in 1992 and bottled in 2008. So it spend 6 years waiting on a shelf, without increasing significantly in value.

Colour: light amber.

Nose: a soft and faint nose. Notes of honey accompanied by a whiff of light peat smoke, hints from sherry, vanilla and biscuits. Further are more hints from wood, a bit like smoldering apple wood, heather floral notes and soft undertones of cereal.

Mouth: mildly sweet palate, with a thin body. Soft floral notes of heather, peat, vanilla, toffee and undertones of oak wood.

Finish: bitter, dry and short. Notes of caramel, honey and liquorice. But so short that you can hardly call it a finish

Serge Valentin believes that it was designed to introduce a new crowd to the Highland Park Taste. Thus it is far too weak to be properly enjoyed by the regular malt drinker. It feels like a toned-down 12yo with a fair dash of water. A "Highland Park Light" as I call it. Make no mistake, this is in no way a bad whisky, it is a bit weak overall you might really enjoy it if you never tasted a true Highland Park. It is as if the distillery released a young NAS version of their regular range. But not worth buying, you'll find nothing here that you can't find in other Highland Park expressions

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