Highland Park 15 Years Old Viking Heart Single Malt Scotch Whisky (Without Box)

Region : Scotland

Alcohol : 44%

Website : https://www.highlandparkwhisky.com/en

THE HISTORY

Our distillery is perched atop high ground on the southern edge of Kirkwall, and stands watch over the town. As well as a collection of ancient stone buildings, we have 23 warehouses, and 2 pagoda-topped kilns. Incidentally, although our warehouses are numbered from 1 to 25, there are actually only 23 of them – one of history’s little mysteries. For over 220 years, our distillery has sat stoically through long winters, raging storms and 100mph winds. It all makes for more harmonious whisky.

THE KILNS

Our two kilns are used to dry out the hand-turned malted barley over slow-burning hand-cut local peat from Hobbister Moor. When you make whisky, your sense of scale and time warp – in our world, our youngest kiln is still ‘new’ at just over 100 years old, and we have no intention of replacing either of them any time soon. If you want to make award-winning whisky, you have to appreciate that sometimes tradition defies convention.

THE STILLS

Our stillhouse has four stills, two wash stills and two spirit stills, and a robust copper and brass spirit safe. The stills were made by Forsyth’s, a renowned still-maker in Speyside. Interestingly, unlike most stills, ours have windows so that we can see the boiling liquid inside. This just demonstrates the lengths that we will go to to create perfection: we even keep an eye on the spirit as it boils.

This is a wonderfully rich and complex single malt. Opening with rich and spicy aromas of crème brûlée, heather honey and crumbled cinnamon, intensely fruity notes follow – fresh pineapple dressed with a scattering of sun-kissed lemon zest. There’s a hint of freshly baked sponge cake too, warm from the oven, and you’ll find cinnamon again, but toasted shards this time. Citrus and vanilla notes linger in the aromatic waves of peat smoke.

To create our 15 Year Old, Gordon Motion, our Master Whisky Maker, selected predominantly sherry seasoned European oak casks to deliver warm, spicy notes, and sherry seasoned American oak casks to provide a balance of sweet vanilla. Expertly adding just a few refill casks to soften and smooth the flavours, Gordon chose to bottle at 44% ABV to allow the whisky’s vibrant fruitiness and distinctive heathery peat to shine through.