Highland Park Dark 17 & 1999 Full Volume Reviews

Hi everyone,

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the direction Highland Park are going. They’re still on of my favourite distilleries when it comes to the age statement range (which I think is great, although was better priced a few years ago).

But a multitude of NAS and ‘collectors’ editions riding on as much Viking themed marketing as possible has left me a little disillusioned. The latest in this seemingly endless stream of new whiskies is Dark and (the yet to be released) Light. I was lucky enough to get a taste of the Dark in the Whiskysite.nl shop and managed to write some notes.

Next then was the new HP Full Volume, which has a vintage, a higher strength and a reasonable price.

Highland Park Dark 17 52.9%

Colour: Amber

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Really dark fruit and spices. Rich Sherry, fig, plum, dark chocolate, heather, sweet honey. Great nose.

Taste: Rich and intense. Spicy, red apple, dark orange, plum, dark chocolate, syrup, Sherry and coffee.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Espresso, dark chocolate.

Best thing from HP in a while. The balance is there, it is heavy but not overly Sherried. The HP character comes through. All in all this was great whisky but remember these babies don’t come cheap. Because, you know, Vikings.

85/100

 

Highland Park 1999 Full Volume 47.2%

Colour: Straw

Body: Medium

Nose: Underripe mango, melon, very fresh and clean, clean malt, austere for an HP, almost Irish-esque with that 'green' fruit and oak, lemon peel.

Taste: Soft arrival, melon, underipe mango, green oak, sappy, clean lemon, orange peel, dry oak, vanilla, quite dry though.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Slightly sooty, melon, very dry finish. Nice though.

Distilled 1999, bottled 2017. Not a super 'full volume' HP (the Dark is much more FULL VOLUME HP) and I'm not a massive fan of this style but good on 'em for age statement, colour and abv.

75/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #545-#546

Whisky Network Review #640-#641

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 92

Worst Score: 22

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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