Highland Park Is In my Hands!

lol! They are the same size. I was just comparing the bottles and noticed they both say 750ml.

VF

Don;t worry, I had that happen to me today. The four whisky bottles I got this afternoon all look to be completely different sizes to the naked eye, but they're all 70cl bottles.

Shapes can be deceptive.

Many maltsters have found that Highland Park seems to disappear a lot quicker than other whisky. It is far too easy to drink.

regards

Esmond

That's what I keep telling my wife but she's convinced it's a beer belly :-)

Well, I finally tasted my second pure Scotch whisky - Highland Park 12. Since I'm still new to scotch and it's technical terms I will just use my own words but here are a few notes:

1. Highland Park is definitely different that Glenlivet 12. More dark, heavier, more flowing. The smoothness cuts down on the burning.
2. I have given my brother (a wine drinker) some of the glenlivet 12. He called it 'rocket fuel. I can understand why some might call it 'rocket fuel but you cant say that about the Highland Park.
3. This stuff if much easier to drink. It goes down the throat very nice. I drunk about two drams. I felt like I could have drunk more.
4. If I had to choose between the Highland Park and Glenlivet 12 I would go with the Highland Park. It's just more enjoyable to drink. Unless I wanted some zing, then I would choose the Highland Park.
5. The smell was heavier also. Taste - I don't know what the technical term is - maybe woody - it was softer and more mellow. Maybe with Highland Park I was tasting more of the cask flavor and other ingredients besides the alcohol.

Anyway, I fell like I have made my first real discovery regarding scotch with Highland Park. I know have a scotch that tastes really good and is enjoyable to drink. I also have a base to work from. My scotch knowledge is starting to build.

VF

Von Fourche ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) wrote: : Anyway, I fell like I have made my first real discovery regarding scotch : with Highland Park. I know have a scotch that tastes really good and is : enjoyable to drink. I also have a base to work from. My scotch knowledge : is starting to build.

It's really nice, isn't it? HP is one of my favorites for all of the reasons you describe. Glad you enjoyed it.

For your next one, you might want to see if you can find a good price on a Bruichladdich 15 (the new version in the aluminum tube). It is a lovely whisky, different from the HP, but every bit as good. They also sell some sampler packs in smaller sizes that might be of interest to you. Have fun!

-- Greg Beaulieu snipped-for-privacy@chebucto.ns.ca Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada

I'll give it a try.

I too am brand new to Single Malt Scotch.

You gotta then try Macallans. Single Malt Nivrana. I had a 25yr. old bottling. ...WOW. Dark, rich, w/o being heavy, smooth and really really tasty. [paid $269]

It sounds like the Highland Park is along those lines and I'll have to pick up a bottle.

The Highland Park was much cheaper - like around $44.00.

I would advise to buy a few more bottles and have head-to-head tastings. I have around 8 single malts open at any time and I like to take two small drams (2 cl each, I have no idea how much that is in those weird US measurements, maybe 2 fluid gallons or so) and compare them. You can have quit a few mini-tastings with 8 bottles. I keeps amazing me how well whisky goes with more whisky. Even a dull whisky often reveals nuances in smell and taste that are not noticed when drunk on its own. It is also much easier to compare two malts when you are sipping them at the same time. I often find it difficult to compare a whisky I am drinking now with one that I had a month ago. Usually I only remember the most obvious tastes and smells, the one that are easily labelled. The funny smells and tastes that make whisky so fascinating often have no name, at least not for me....

Happy tasting, Raymond.

The Highland Park you refer to is the 12 YO. It would probably be unfair to either malt to compare expressions of such different ages. Highland Park makes an absolutely delicious 25 YO (around $170) that should be tasted next to the superb Macallan 25. Both are exceptional whiskies.

Barnaby

be warned - use of the term "pure Scotch whisky" is somewhat contentious right now due to the Diego/Cardhu debacle, where they were wanting to label bottlings of vatted malts as "pure". Highland Park, and all output from individual distilleries should rightly be termed "Single Malt" :-)

enjoy

Slainte

- - - "This is not my Sig."

: 4. If I had to choose between the Highland Park and Glenlivet 12 I : would go with the Highland Park.

Well, in my very humble opinion you could substitute "Glenlivet 12" in the sentence above with 99% of possible whisky names, and the sentence would still be true !