Highland Park Viking Honour aka 12 yars old
Again, we at The wWhisky Factory would like to give Gal Shon a HUGE thank you for letting us use his fantastic artwork !
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As I’m in Orkney on holiday, I thought it was time I looked at Highland Park. Highland Park 12 year old.
My beloved Highland Park distillery.
Kirkwall, Orkney.
You can keep Yorkshire as gods country and piss off. Also cricket can piss off as well. This is the land of Valhalla.
The land of Vikings and all things Nordic from 5000 years ago. Pyramids, Egypt. Bollocks to you. Orkney had standing stones, culture, major cultural influence over the UK and making beer before you had camel shite.
You want culture, history and heritage? Visit Orkney.
There are so many world heritage sites and places of special historical interest you’re tripping over them.
If you dig in a field you’ll probably find a burial carin with several hundred bodies in. For fucks sake don’t be a serial killer in Orkney and bury the bodies in your back garden and then get caught.
News reader.
“Police are at a loss, as the number of bodies found so far is numbering over 100 with 60 of them covered in animal bones. The man’s a fucking lunatic say local residents”
I genuinely love Orkney.
Really love Orkney. I want to live there. I’ll not die in bastard Warwickshire. I’ll die on the mainland of Orkney. If I’m in a coma, on deaths door ready to meet whatever is on the other side and headbutt it, then I expect to be driven there and I’ll die there and then buried there.
I’m not going to die in fucking Warwickshire.
Anyhow the whisky.
Highland Park 12yo
Benchmark of bullet proof consistency.
The 12yo which I measure all other whisky against.
Arguably one of the best quality v. money purchases in the UK.
Sherry cask driven.
It has just the right amount of peat smoke to make it enjoyable. It’s 12 years old.
Its just a fucking brilliant bottle of scotch.
The bottle looks great with all the work on it.
It has a map on the bottom of the bottle.
Just as a side note. Highland Park has released various bottles to raise money for good causes.
Please do another lifeboats bottle, they need as much money as you can raise. I’ve seen the Pentland Firth throw the big ships around like a child throws a bath toy. To go out in that water takes a size of bollocks that most including myself will never posse. They are incredibly modest about what they do and they’ll just say they are doing what they want to do but the RNLI men are incredible. Just take a read about the Longhope life boat story. I’ve nothing but admiration for them.
Things we don’t like about Highland Park and the 12yo.
No unicorn on the bottle. I want a bastard unicorn on a bottle of whisky. Now put one in it.
As far as the marketing department goes…lads ease up on the Viking bit. We know Orkney had Vikings but not every last thing connected to Highland Park has to be Viking oriented.
Ok. Ease up on the Viking marketing.
Do unicorn based marketing!
We know that you’re paying for the new Macallan distillery but ease up on the amount of new release bottles. Bring back the 15yo for about £40-45 and a lot of people will be happy. It’s still a great whisky.
The 12yo whisky.
Deep colour. Looks lovely.
It’s a kind of “I’m still colour blind so if you’re asking me you’re not going to get a correct answer colour”.
You have eyes. They probably work better than mine, and have we really got to the stage where you have to be told a colour even though a photo is in front of you? Gal knows what colour it is.
Full on smell. Not shy.
Taste.
Big lump of whisky goodness. Sweet, sherry flavours but not full on. Bit of orange, dried fruit, honey, heather and vanilla.
Little bit of peat and smoke. Only a little bit, but it just creeps in gently. Enough in it to make it interesting but nothing overly complicated or demanding therefore it’s my favourite daily sipper.
The finish is surprisingly long. Nothing painful or gut stripping but nice alcohol warmth all the way with that added bit of smoke.
The brand ambassador is an absolute unit and unlike some out there Martin really knows his shit and there is some really good tasting notes on YouTube. Also Martin has Tattoos and a beard but he’s definitely not a hipster.
Just in case I forget. Hipsters…Piss off. Michael Jackson (the whisky writer who has now passed away, not the singer) described it as one of the great all round whiskys, and I’m inclined to agree with him.
My fear for the 12yo is that it’ll fall into the same bracket as Glenfiddich 12yo. Both extremely good bottles. A bullet proof level of consistent quality. Universally recognised. A benchmark for what a 12yo whisky should be. No one talks about it or goes chicken oriental about it.
Well I’m happy to go grab you by the nipples, drag you along and tell you sip it and enjoy for what it is while everyone shouts about something else.
Now then.
Grab a bottle.
Strap one on!
We are Valhalla bound and this ain’t no hen party bitch!