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Highland Park 14 Year Old 2009 Double Matured Ex Bourbon 1st Fill Barrel 4.389 Yellowtail Sashimi And Smoked Mackerel Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2024) 70cl
1 of 232 bottles produced from a single bourbon barrel recasked into another 1st fill bourbon barrel to produce a double maturation on this Highland Park.
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by Phillip 'Pip' Hills who, while travelling around Scotland in the 1970s, fell in love with whiskies drawn straight from the cask. After he expanded his syndicate the Society was purchased by Glenmorangie PLC in 2004. In 2015, the Society was sold back to private investors. In June 2021, the private owners floated the holding company The Artisanal Spirits Company plc on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
It has a unique code system where the first number refers to the distillery and the second refers to the cask from which the bottle comes. SMWS also offers the largest range of distilleries of any independent bottler. These curiously named drams really do have something for every whisky lover!
TASTING NOTES
We grilled on a sandy beach on a sunny day, searing ahi tuna with a lavender-pepper crust and chargrilled sun-dried tomatoes. While we waited for those, we had a bento box with spicy salmon uramaki, smoked salmon and avocado sushi, as well as yellowtail sashimi with truffle ponzu. After reduction a savoury note appeared: salted crackers, peanuts and oatcakes topped with cra¨me fraiche, salmon caviar and chives. On the palate we found a sweet, salty and smoky combination as two dips came to mind: honey mustard pretzel and smoked mackerel. At eight years of age, we combined selected hogsheads from the same distillery into a variety of different casks to develop further. This is one of those casks.
About Highland Park
A peat fire burns at the heart of Highland Park. An Orcadian peat fire to be precise. This is significant not just in retention of heritage, but in flavour terms.
Peat is made up from semi-decomposed vegetation laid down over thousands of years. That vegetation differs across Scotland depending on climatic condition all these millennia ago. When the peat is dried and then burned, the phenols (smoky aromas) released will have different aromas generated by this vegetation. Mainland peat is smokier because of there being more lignin from trees; Islay’s peat appears to have more marine vegetation and contains more creosol (picked up as tar); while Orcadian peat is composed entirely of sphagnum moss and heather. The result, once again, is a different aromatic spectrum, lightly smoky, but significantly more fragrant… heathery even.
The peat is burned in the distillery’s own kiln and the resulting heavily smoky malt makes up 20% of the barley used for each mash. The remainder, unpeated, comes from the mainland.
The other signature of Highland Park comes later in the process with maturation. The regime has been 100% Sherry casks since 2004, with a mix of European and American oak (as well as refill) being used. These add a layer of richness to the lightly smoky, fragrant and fruity character.
The origins of distilleries are often, as they should be, obscured by the clouds of half-truth and myth. Such is the case with Highland Park. Was it founded by famed priest turned smuggler Magnus Eunson, or by farmer David Robertson in 1798? The distillery’s ornate wrought ironwork gate certainly attests to the 1798 story.
Was it always called Highland Park or originally was it known as Rosebank, then Kirkwall and only becoming Highland Park later?
Whatever the slight mystery over its origins, it is accepted that it wasn’t until the late 19th century that Kirkwall’s then only distillery found its feet properly in the 1870s under the ownership of first William Stuart [who owned Miltonduff] and from 1885 with his business partner James Grant (previously the manager of The Glenlivet) who took full control in 1895. It was Grant who expanded the distillery twice and built up a strong relationship with Robertson & Baxter (R&B).
Highland Distillers (who had shares in R&B) took full control in 1937 and Highland Park is now part of the Edrington Group.
It first appeared as single malt in the late 1970s, as an eight-year-old, but the packaging was revamped in the 1980s (and repeatedly ever since) when the 12- and 18-year-old expressions were introduced. It soon built up a strong, even cult, following with the range expanding continually. As well as a core range with age statements, various series have been released themed around Orcadian history and Norse gods.
62.7% ABV
70cl
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