Highland Park The Dark 17 Year Old
Dark
0 387
Review by @markjedi1
- Nose~
- Taste~
- Finish~
- Balance~
- Overall87
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- Brand: Highland Park
- Type: Scotch
- Region: Island
- ABV: 52.9%
Highland Park plans a new duo: The Dark & The Light. The first, which appeared at the end of 2017, symbolizes winter and autumn. The second one will then be about spring and summer and will be called The Light – coming soon. So, let’s give The Dark a go, which was cut to 52.9% (yup, this is not cask strength).
The nose needs a bit of time, but with some hand warmth it opens up nicely. It is dark and sweet from the onset and very spicy. Think ginger, cloves and loads of cinnamon. The sweet notes refer to burnt caramel, fresh figs wrapped in a slice of bacon, candied orange peel and roasted chestnuts. A bitterness as if from green tea that stood to long. Some dark chocolate.
It is dark and sweet and very spicy on the palate as well. Yes, the spices do attract all the attention at first. It turns warm and spicy and you might neglect the fruit at first. But once the malt has settled in your mouth, the chestnuts and oranges return, upholstered with some top notch espresso and some nice woodsmoke that can be from both the cask as the heathery peat.
The finish is very dry and mildly bitter, but pleasantly long.
The nose was rather quiet, but on the palate, this malt developed into a beautiful dram. More expensive than 200 EUR, which is quite a lot for a 17 year old malt.
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Highland Park is so heavily into gimmickry now, that I can hardly take them seriously. If I could just have the 12 and 18 year olds of about 15 years ago and maybe 2 or 3 of their better goofily named Viking offerings I would be happy. How much of this stuff can they churn out at stupid prices, with stupid names and expect to remain credibile? I took the hook on Valkyrie and I swallowed the bait for Full Volume, but that's it. There's a younger generation getting a lot of my money lately. I'm talking Kilchoman, Arran, Benromach, Benriach, Glendronach etc.
Thanks for your usual very thorough and helpful reviews, though Mark. Always a pleasure.