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Highland Park Orkney 15 Year Old 2002 Lads of Lobland

Stew with Salted Exotic Fruit

1 087

@markjedi1Review by @markjedi1

16th Mar 2018

1

  • Nose
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  • Taste
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  • Finish
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  • Balance
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  • Overall
    87

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Monarchy of the Lads is a series of single cask releases by Belgian club BYOB-C (say ‘biopsy’), which stands for Bring Your Own Bottle Club. This is their seventh release already, after the Clynelish 1997, Springbank 1996, Tormore 1995, Glenlossie 1992, Speyside Region 1998 and Ledaig 2007. For their Chapter 7 they selected a lovely single cask from 2002 on Orkney. And while the name of the distillery is not mentioned on the label, this is clearly Highland Park.

Beautiful, clear nose of candied fruit like peach and apricot with lots of Seville oranges and a soft, salty lining. I even get a bit of red fruit. Slowly but surely it turns quite creamy. Butterscotch and toffee kick in. A soft smokiness in the background makes this picture perfect.

The body is good, the attack pleasant, despite the high ABV. But it certainly does not need water. It is sweet and sour on both citrus (oranges, mostly) and apricots. Pastry with apricot marmalade. But again that lovely salty edge arrives, becoming quite big and giving the malt some feistiness. The spices and smoke stay rather discreet, giving the fruit the attention it deserves. Very balanced.

The finish is very long and warm, the spices taking the reins once more.

This is a stew of salted exotic fruit and absolutely great. And I’m happy that I was able to add the last bottle (54 of 54) to my collection, next to all the others from Monarchy. But it is going to be tough keeping this once closed.

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