Highland Park 40-year-old

Overall rating
92.65/100
ratings
221
Whiskybase ID
WB1706
Category
Single Malt
Distillery
Bottler
Distillery Bottling
Bottled
2008
Stated Age
40 years
Cask Type
Refill Casks
Strength
48.3 %
Size
50 ml 700 ml 750 ml
Bottle code
5010314075903
Added on
02 may 2008 9:52 am
UncoloredNon-chill FilteredCask Strength
Overall rating
92.65/100
ratings
221

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Whisky reviews for Highland Park 40-year-old

52 users have left 61 reviews for this whisky. Average rating is 92.65 points.

Read the reviews
  1. Macheye scored this whisky 95 points Expert Senior

    Highland Park 40 year is simply stunning and the finest whisky I’ve sampled during my time writing for The Dramble. The flavour delivery is precise, the balance is perfect, and the development and finish offer almost endless depth and complexity.
    • Nose
      Exquisitely rich and expressive, but given the hefty age statement, you’ll not be surprised when I suggest that some substantial resting time (over 30 minutes) is required here. Once fully opened, there’s nothing shy about this nose – wonderful maturity and remarkable aroma development – it’s hauntingly sexy and an experience you’re unlikely to want to end….ever. Pronounced leather, mahogany polish and musty bone dry paper conjure up images of a wood-panelled Victoria library packed to the rafters with ancient leather-bound tomes. The traditional Highland Park profile is still extraordinarily strong here – dried highland grasses, heathery honey and sweet wispy smoke – but everything is richer, deeper and altogether more refined. Orange peels, Peruvian dark chocolate and liquorice merge with luxuriant dark berry fruits, prune juice and dusty aged spices – cinnamon and nutmeg. The level of smoke here is surprising, it’s still a wafting background aroma, packed full of burnt hays, stubbed out cigars and tinder boxes – but it’s much more pronounced that one might expect from 40 years of maturation – this results in a peat that seeming both ancient and refined and yet lively and spry at the same time. Woodiness levels are unsurprisingly high – and yet still somehow restrained – highly polished dark old wood – not a trace of young sappy vanilla and with plenty of beeswax and lacquered furniture. Beautiful, captivating and lingering. I could nose this forever.
    • Taste
      Unctuous, slightly oily and with a perfectly judged arrival that delivers a surge of refined flavour with almost no perceptible alcohol despite the 48.3% ABV. Yes, friends, if you’re judging whisky on its ‘smoothness’ this is as smooth as they come. The front palate offers up a stunning balance of mouth-coating burnt sweet heather and cinder toffee, sitting alongside raisins, orange and dried citrus peels. This develops (slowly) into perfectly judged bitterness – from both spices and wood. Cinnamon, nutmeg, a sprinkle of white pepper and then a wave of tanned leather, ancient saddle hides, dusty books, teak oil, mahogany and ebony woods. The development continues into the back palate where sweetness returns to balance the deeper, spicier wood-led flavours – a harvest of juicy, reduced red and black fruit jams and preserves alongside chocolate and burnt honeycomb. Smoke runs throughout, but is most discernible in the back palate – it’s an intriguing and subtle combination of sun-scorched hays, burnt sugars and coastalness. Glorious.
    • Finish
      Almost never ending – ever decreasing little lapping waves of chocolate, berries, ancient wood and aromatic spices. It dries superbly without any perceptible tannic influence.

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Tasting tags

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  • Chocolate
    Chocolate
  • Citric
    Citric
  • Cooked Fruit
    Cooked Fruit
  • Dried Fruit
    Dried Fruit
  • Honey
    Honey
  • Leathery
    Leathery
  • Old Wood
    Old Wood
  • Smokey
    Smokey
  • Tobacco
    Tobacco
  • Vanilla
    Vanilla
  • Coal-gas
    Coal-gas
  • Cooked Mash
    Cooked Mash
  • Cooked Vegetable
    Cooked Vegetable
  • Fragant
    Fragant
  • Fresh Fruit
    Fresh Fruit
  • Green-House
    Green-House
  • Hay-like
    Hay-like
  • Husky
    Husky
  • Kippery
    Kippery
  • Leafy
    Leafy
  • Malt Extract
    Malt Extract
  • Medicinal
    Medicinal
  • Mossy
    Mossy
  • New Wood
    New Wood
  • Nutty
    Nutty
  • Oily
    Oily
  • Plastic
    Plastic
  • Rubbery
    Rubbery
  • Sandy
    Sandy
  • Sherried
    Sherried
  • Solvent
    Solvent
  • Sweaty
    Sweaty
  • Toasted
    Toasted
  • Vegetative
    Vegetative
  • Yeasty
    Yeasty