Highland Park has been named ‘The Best Spirit in the World’ no less than three times, and has also gained the accolades of: World’s Best Single Malt for its 21 years old and the Ultimate Spirit in 2013 for the 25 year old. However, ‘unnecessary’ the traditional processes and additional harmonisation may seem, the resulting whisky appears to gain great benefit. This harmonisation takes up to six months and gives the whisky improved consistency, complexity and balance. The distillery has been around for over 210 years since it started producing whisky in. Each individual batch of whisky is drawn together from a variety of cask types, contributing an array of flavours. Scottish Single Malts from the Highland Park Distillery on Orkney. Distillers often see this practice as an unnecessary expense, yet Highland Park consider it an essential part of their traditional process. The whisky then goes through a process called Harmonisation. Traditional oak casks seasoned with dry Oloroso sherry are used which the distillery claims help contribute to the “distinctive richness” in the resulting spirit. Highland Park’s bourbon barrels are not routinely filled. When it is ready, the barley is then placed in kilns where the aromatic peating process begins. To create this whisky, the people at Highland Park used a higher proportion of locally peated malt to create their spirit, and let it age in sherry seasoned. To malt their barley, it is steeped it in the mineral rich water from the Crantit spring, before transferred to the malting floor to slowly germinate. Highland Park is one of only a handful of distilleries that still retains a traditional malting floor, working each batch of malt by hand, in what is an extremely labor intensive process. Highland Distillers (who had shares in R&B) took full control in 1937 and Highland Park is now part of the Edrington Group. The distillery found its feet fully in the 1870s, when it fell under the ownership of first William Stuart and then from 1885 with his business partner James Grant (previously the manager of The Glenlivet) who took full control in 1895. The distillery works to the same exacting and with the same methods as it has had since its birth in 1798. Lead image kindly provided by Oak Liquors. I bought the HP 12 from HiTime Wines for somewhere between 35 and 40 a few years ago. With a history dating back over 200 years, Orkney-based Highland Park is one of the most respected single malts in the world. The new Highland Park 12 VH currently sells for £32.95 on The Whisky Exchange, £29.95 at Master of Malt but I acquired samples of the whisky via sample swap.
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