Highland Park 1999 16 yo Single first-fill American oak barrel #4260 (TWE Exclusive)

This is the second TWE Exclusive recently released, and bottled especially for TWE by Gordon & MacPhail. This is not your regular HP, since the cask used to aged the spirit in this case is a  first-fill American-oak barrel, rather than the standard sherry casks usually used by highland park. Interesting, Isn’t it? It’s common knowledge that G&M hold a massive cache of superb whisky casks, and this is one of them, aged on site at G&M.

Highland Park 1999 , 16 yo, Cask #4260, 56.6% abv, £79.95

HP_TWE

Nose : starts quite creamy with honey and vanilla balanced by gentle citrus and a faint sour note that goes well with the creaminess. There’s a wee trace of wood smoke and wine gums and maybe a very distant peaty reek.

Palate : Big creamy entry with a nice fruity touch,  some apples, pears with lots of wood spices,  Pepper and Clove,cinnamon and earth. It’s quite dry,  with roasted nuts and spicy wood. There’s more wood smoke here and a touch of dry mango.
Not your everyday highland park profile for sure.

Finish: Spicy and smoky, with lots of pepper heat dry wood smoke and earth.
A very enjoyable and creamy Highland park, at a premium strength, a nice change of pace, while still displaying a nice peaty and wood smoke notes , even though no sherry is present. Very good stuff- Again.

Score: 88/100

Leave a Reply