A Gorgeous and Remarkably Complex 20 Year Single Malt
1997 Highland Park 20 “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Scotch ($199.99)
“This is one of the most complex Old Particular casks we have ever bottled.”
– Andrew Whiteley, K&L Assistant Spirits Buyer
While we love every bottle in our “Old Particular” program, there’s always that one that shines a little more brightly. The 1997 Highland Park 20 Year Old Particular is just such a bottle. Coming from one of the most highly regarded distilleries in all of Scotland, this stunning expression is wonderfully complex and thoroughly engaging from the first sip to the last. Its time in a re-coopered sherry cask has imbued this classic malt with an endless parade of flavors that a even the most florid prose would be unable to capture. Given its age and Highland Park’s unblemished reputation, you’d normally expect to pay in the neighborhood of $350, but as with all of our “Old Particular” bottlings, we’re offering it for a fraction of that.
Many consider Highland Park to be crafting the best whiskies in the world, and given what we’ve experienced here, it is easy to see why. For fans, this is a requisite bottling and those who may be making their first foray into high end Scotch, we can’t think of a better place to start. Scroll below for the staff reviews and see why we were so enamored with this utterly profound (and delicious) single malt.
1997 Highland Park 20 “Old Particular” K&L Exclusive Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt Scotch Whisky (750ml) ($199.99)
Highland Park is truly a product of its environment. The distillery lays just a few degrees outside the bounds of the Arctic Circle on an island devoid of trees and ravaged by wind, yet relatively mild in temperature swings. This unique location coupled with the extra effort of floor malting their own barley on site are some of the components that lead to an awards list a mile long. This list includes many Gold and Double Gold medals for the distillery and its various bottlings. The barley is malted with local peat from Hobbister Moor, dense in heather, and providing an unusually floral characteristic to the smoke. The gale force winds carry the salt sea air through the barrel houses giving the whisky a salty tanginess that is all together different than the iodine characteristics of Islay. Weighing in at 53.1% alcohol and well below the $550 price tag of the 25 year old distillery bottling, this 20 year old Old Particular cask really struts the salt air and delicate floral smoke. Charged from a refill hogshead.
Andrew Whiteley | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: February 14, 2018
This is one of the most complex Old Particular casks we have ever bottled. The nose is at first full of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies sprinkled with a touch of cracked rock salt but gives way to the much more delicate aroma of stone fruits and tree blossoms. The palate is dense with dried figs, caramel, brioche, Christmas spices, and the savory notes of lightly smoked meats. The barley itself seems take center staged for a moment before fleeing into the background leaving behind a wisp of orange and smoke, like a hip bartender flashing the citrus oil before dropping the garnish peel into your Old Fashioned. The finish is particularly lengthy here and changes slightly with each sip. Every sampling leaves you with a different impression than the one before, but each contributes to building the complete picture of what 20 long years of age does for one of the world’s greatest distilleries.
David Driscoll | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: February 15, 2018
If you look at the label of the new Highland Park 20 exclusive K&L cask, all it tells you about the barrel is it was a “refill hogshead.” That being said, all you need to do is look at the color and take a small sip to know that hogshead was most definitely re-coopered from a sherry butt. I’ve been sipping on a sample all morning long, letting the sweet, raisiny flavor coat my palate, while chewing on the subtle smoke that permeates the finish. I was thinking about how one of Scotland’s most famous distillers (one that I won’t name since he works for a rival company) once told me: “Highland Park is the king of all malts.” There are numerous single malt fanatics who consider Highland Park the world’s best whisky, right along side Macallan at the top of the food chain (both are owned by Edrington as well, if you didn’t know). This 20 year single cask, full proof expression should help to bolster that case. It’s rich, textural, utterly complex, and runs the gambit from sweet to peat with incredible nuance. While $200 isn’t exactly what I’d call a “value,” let me contrast this price with the 12 year old distillery-direct sherry hogshead I purchased from Highland Park this past January (due in later this year). That full proof edition should come in somewhere between $150 -$170 per bottle. That’s the added premium that a distillery-bottled expression carries. Nevertheless, I bought it because it was one of the best sherry-aged whiskies I’d tasted in months. That being said, for an extra $40 or so in this case, you can get a 20 year old version of the same make and provenance.
Gary Westby | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: February 15, 2018
I was blown away by this cask strength Highland Park from the first little sniff. After adding a few drops of water, it only got better. This has it all: rich, almondy nuttiness, sweet and savory sherry depth and more than a hint of Orkney smoke on the super long finish. With supplies of great distilleries like Highland Park disappearing from the stocks of specialty bottlers, this extraordinarily fine 20 year old is looking like a value, even if it is not inexpensive. If you are looking for profound, old, sherry influenced malt from one of the great island distilleries, you have found it!
