Subject notes from Orkney

Scapa 10 yo (48%, OB, 2024) 
Sarcastically, Serge beat me to those new expressions simply this previous week. I’m a fan of the brand new look Scapa, and this 10yo a minimum of appears fairly effectively priced and with an encouraging bottling power. Color: straw. Nostril: zesty citrus, polished cereals and inexperienced fruit. Some inexperienced banana, apple, kiwi and melon. Typical bourbon pushed, straightforward and fruity stuff. Mouth: lemony up entrance once more, lemon meringue pie with the creamy sweetness of American cream soda, suggesting some fairly energetic first fill bourbon at play. Purchase the identical sense of straightforward, wealthy fruitiness is simple. End: good size, reasonably peppery and nonetheless candy with inexperienced apple. Feedback: wonderful entry bottling, only a notch an excessive amount of wooden exercise for me, however the high quality is actually excessive. I love the adhesion to classical bourbon maturation, however I might have liked a little bit of a refill element within the combine to convey a little bit of freshness and a bit extra Scapa distillate character.
SGP: 651 – 85 factors.

Scapa 16 yo (48%, OB, 2024)
Color: gold. Nostril: identical feeling however extra coconut, toasty oak, candied citrus peel, cabinet spices and a contact of wax. Will get just a little extra advanced with time, revealing some coastal and floral touches. Mouth: fairly spicy and peppery, with some barely unique notes, lime sweets, citrus curds and custard. It’s the feel and physique which impress most right here, very pleasurable. An analogous feeling of some energetic oak simply lurking within the background. End: medium, on wooden spices, dessert wine sweetness and custard once more. Feedback: it’s the feel that basically impresses right here. I might simply add the identical remark because the 10yo, it will be good to fell a slight stability of some refill reasonably than full on first fill.
SGP: 661 – 87 factors.

Scapa 21 yo (52.9%, OB, 2024) 
Color: gold. Nostril: gingery, cinnamon and spices. Inexperienced peppercorn, charred pineapple, cereal, waxes and just a little aniseed. With water: nutmeg, cedar wooden and sandalwood, with some refined seaside sand and more healthy attractive vibes – feeling suitably ‘Orcadian’ and even just a little bit HP, dare I say. Mouth: grippy spices and a pleasant menthol notice on arrival. Eucalyptus, lemon verbena, bergamot and dried unique fruits in muesli. With water: natural, honeyed and waxier. Nonetheless fairly spicy however the total weight, texture and dried fruity vibes are pretty. End: good size, on coconut, natural teas, heather honey and peppery spice once more. Feedback: excellent, oak involvement as soon as once more but it surely’s a strong older Scapa with wonderful growth and a transparent Orkney accent.
SGP: 661 – 88 factors.

Scapa 14 yo Distillery Unique (48.1%, OB, 1st fill barrels, 1500 bottles)
Color: gold. Nostril: menthol, watercress, lemon verbena, mint, eucalyptus and flower honeys. An instantly enchanting profile that looks like what you ‘need’ Scapa to behave like. Plenty of fruit teas, natural extracts and crystalised honeys that go in direction of mead and waxy honeycomb. An excellent nostril! Mouth: just a little extra according to the brand new 10 and 16 12 months olds, with a extra peppery, wooden spice pushed character, but in addition extra robust fruit teas, heather honey, waxes, camphor, moist wool and touches of white flowers and fir wooden resins. End: fairly lengthy, with a drier peppery heat, crème de menthe, fir woods, lemon oil and baked apples in custard. Feedback: perilously straightforward to drink and crying out for a hefty measure in a pitcher, which is exactly what I feel a distillery unique bottling ought to ship. Further factors for the splendidly expressive and enjoyable nostril. 
SGP: 561 – 88 factors. 

Scapa 16 yo (57.4%, OB ‘Distillery Reserve Assortment’, cask #2182, 1st fill sherry butt, 924 bottles) 
I used to be impressed by the vary of bottlings accessible at Scapa’s pretty wee customer centre, however at £125.00 this wee 50cl 16yo appears too extremely priced in my opinion. Now, we don’t rating costs right here on WF… Color: amber. Nostril: punchy fashionable sherry that’s filled with beef consommé, Bovril, crusted port, cocktail bitters, celery salt and reasonably jammy darkish fruit notes, like prune paste and strawberry jam. It’s a really highly effective type, that flies within the face of Scapa’s regular grace and class. Goes on with some breads, darkish ales and low grounds. With water: sport meats, strop leather-based, aged pinot noir and liquid vegetable inventory like Maggi. Filled with broths, vegetal and natural impressions. Mouth: powerful and punchy up entrance, reasonably assertive wooden spices, some cranberry gravy, freshly brewed espresso, walnut oil and black miso paste. Very spicy and really umami in profile. With water: lean, dry, meaty, leathery, gamey and earthy with a variety of black pepper, hints of aniseed and extra umami broths and infusions. Changing into even fairly salty after some time… End: very lengthy, umami, gamey, salty and with pickled walnuts, mustard powder and black pepper. Feedback: a wee thug! Makes you’re feeling not in contrast to you’ve been mugged twice! (I’m kidding, expensive Pernod Ricard, type of 😉). Anyway, it is a technically excellent wee Scapa, but it surely’s simply reasonably powerful. I feel I’ll depart this bottle open with a little bit of headspace and re-visit it in a 12 months or so. In all probability the type of very enjoyable bottle to pour blind to your whisky pals and play discover the distillery, I believe folks would hazard Parkmore earlier than they guessed Scapa.
SGP: 471 – 85 factors.  

Highland Park 12 yo (40%, OB, -/+ 2024)
One different noteworthy wee side of those new HP bottlings is that they’re all pure color, which can be encouraging to see. For instance… color: brilliant straw (woohoo!). Nostril: extra heathery and honeyed than I recall, with a light-weight background peat smoke. Damp leaves, some orange peel and extra traditional sherried notes corresponding to sultana and fruit cake. Mouth: it’s the sherry that feels a bit louder now. Extra on dried fruits, some cinnamon bark, heather honey and once more this very faint peat smoke notice. End: fairly lengthy, getting just a little spicier, extra leaves, darkish fruits and cedar wooden. Feedback: excellent, looks like the dearth of caramel leaves a extra pure profile. I feel it’s also notably extra sherried and ever so barely extra peaty than latest years batches. We had the latest ‘Viking Honour’ 12yo at WF83, however I feel it is a notch higher. 
SGP: 463 – 84 factors. 

Highland Park 15 yo (44%, OB, -/+2024)
The final model of this was in a cream-coloured ceramic bottle and named ‘Viking Coronary heart’, which we thought was fairly strong (WF84). Color: pale gold. Nostril. Seems fairly just like the 12, maybe just a little extra overtly fruity with inexperienced fruits becoming a member of the darker ones. I additionally discover some pretty notes of plum jam, unlit cigar, hessian and thicker notes of pure heather honey and restrained, drying peat smoke. Denser and extra vivid than the 12yo I might say. Mouth: on marmalade, crystalised fruits, cedar wooden, a barely extra assertive peat smoke and once more this sense of damp leaves. Beautiful texture and richness with a return as soon as once more to darker fruit impressions. End: medium, thickly on spiced marmalade, mead, camphor, pollens and flippantly natural smoky notes. Feedback: I discover this a superb new addition to the core vary at a reasonably good ABV. Doubtlessly my favorite of the primary expressions and positively an enchancment from the earlier iteration of the 15yo. Just like the 12yo, it looks like there’s a barely extra distinctive peat character on show, which is de facto pleasurable. 
SGP: 563 – 87 factors.

Highland Park 18 yo (43%, OB, -/+2024)
It’s been a very long time since I tasted something aside from some very outdated batches of the HP 18yo, so it is a lengthy overdue refresher course for me… Color: gold. Nostril: extra immediately and classically sherried. Plenty of fig, sultana, milk chocolate, honeycomb and gentle wooden spice. I additionally begin to discover it waxy and notably extra pronounced honeyed notes rising. Just a few greener fruit notes corresponding to apple and gooseberry emerge, however balanced by tangerine, bergamot and natural cough syrup. Mouth: looks like a logical continuation of the 12 and 15, solely softer, nonetheless fairly spicy, however with the fruit dialled down and centered on darker parts. Plenty of marmalade, heather honey, medicinal herbs and unlit cigars in humidors. You’ll be able to see what they’re attempting to do and it does kind of work. End: surprisingly lengthy and a bit smokier and drier than anticipated. Wealthy cereals, waxes, wooden resins and camphor all including a late-stage sense of weight. Feedback: gathered additional factors on the finish with that pretty end. It’s not up there with some historic batches of the 18yo in my opinion, but it surely looks like a sensitively and reasonably meticulously composed bottling made with a way of elevating distillery character entrance and centre. Identical rating because the 15yo for me, however I’d most likely go for a bottle of the 15 over the 18 if I had to decide on. 
SGP: 662 – 87 factors.

Highland Park 20 yo 1974 (46%, First Cask, cask #4334)
A bottling collection provided by Signatory to Direct Wines, we’ve had many very pretty bottlings on this underneath the radar wee collection through the years. Color: pale gold. Nostril: waxy with leafy smokiness, cider apple notes which can be concurrently tart, bitter and funky, then extra on hessian, chalky coastal and mineral notes, lemon rind and a reasonably brittle, dry peat notice. Feels oddly near many of those wonderful unnamed Orkney Malts which can be generally discovered on the indies nowadays. Mouth: gentle peat, heather honey and plenty of refined notes of dried seaweed, miso, camphor, fir wooden, flippantly smoked olive oil and sandalwood. Very pure and vivid outdated Highland Park character on show right here – totally pure, charming and exquisite. End: lengthy, salty, gently earthy peat notes, dried herbs and refined notes of citrus, white flowers and coastal impressions. Feedback: onerous to argue with such easy, elegant bottlings that merely ship unvarnished, stunning distillery character with out fuss or fanfare. The peat character in these outdated HPs is wonderful. 
SGP: 464 – 90 factors. 

Highland Park 10 yo 1999 (57.3%, Scotch Malt Whisky Society 4.135 ‘Orcadian Tongue-Roaster’, 1st fill bourbon barrel, 109 bottles)
At all times good to know that ‘tongue-roaster’ ought to be hyphenated. Additionally, a reasonably low outturn after 10 years with ABV like that is normally an encouraging signal… Color: brilliant straw. Nostril: lemony waxes, seaside sand and pebbles, sandalwood, flower honeys and a few notes of orange marmalade and tiger balm. Sitting on the lighter however nonetheless distinctive aspect of the HP profile. Additionally, a stunning sense of freshness and brightness about this nostril. With water: chalk, sandalwood, coastal flowers, flippantly smoked sea salt and heather ales. Mouth: certainly, a lighter, maybe extra fashionable type with much less peat affect, however nonetheless a variety of mineral impressions and coastal notes. Mineral salts, gentle briny features, seaweed crackers, eucalyptus and chic waxiness. Delicate threads of peat smoke woven down within the combine. With water: actually on coastal freshness, saltiness and likewise a extra outlined and textured waxy character. The peat smoke is elevated properly too. End: lengthy, drying, salty, on camphor, caraway, miso, brine and dried herbs. Feedback: there’s a stunning quantity of nuance and element to this one, and it swims as effortlessly as a rugged Orcadian ought to. A stunning, barely completely different tackle the HP character from this period. 
SGP: 462 – 88 factors.

Highland Park 8 yo (100 proof, Gordon & MacPhail, -/+1978)
We’ve tried a variety of bottles on this livery through the years on Whiskyfun, they usually usually fetch north of 93 a minimum of. There appears to be many variations and vattings on the market, which might make sense given the truth that these had been most likely bottled as required in small volumes. It is a bottle I opened in Japan just a few weeks in the past and now looks like probably the most smart event to document notes. Color: gentle amber. Nostril: stunningly natural, leafy and earthy sherry, filled with salted almonds, inexperienced walnut liqueur, verbena, bone marrow, wormwood, celery salt, camphor and resinous hardwoods. A kind of aromas the place you aren’t too positive what comes from peat, what comes from sherry and what comes purely from distillate, an ideal fusion of influences and forces. Gorgeous natural qualities proceed to emerge, together with extra medicinal features and this persistently stunning, earthy, drying, deep peat notice. With water: turns into astonishingly natural and complicated, actually an entire herb backyard on show, with dried unique fruits, bone-dry peat smoke, earth, roots, vegetable shares and salt cured sport meats. Completely defeats you. Mouth: one other stage nonetheless! Completely gorgeous outdated type peat smoke, tar, camphor, pinecones filled with resins, treacle with sea salt, pure tar liqueurs, natural cough syrup – the checklist goes on and on. However actually that is all about complete energy and pressure of character, of a cohesive and extremely singular character. With water: sensible, tense, salty, peaty, immensely coastal and but additionally deeply earthy, thick and dense in texture. A masterpiece. End: extraordinarily lengthy and totally wonderful; cavernous and echoing with myriad peat flavours. Feedback: as we regularly level out, whiskies that get to this stage are inclined to have one factor in widespread: they lead, you comply with. That’s exactly what occurs right here, a whisky that simply gallops alongside and all you are able to do is try to sustain. These kinds of drams are bewildering to the thoughts. 
SGP: 564 – 94 factors.