Tasting Notes: Highland Park 1994 Vintage Edition • 06.30.10
As the Major League Baseball season came to a labor strike-induced, premature end, Highland Park was laying down barrells (including many first-fill sherry casks) that would make their way into this small-batch vatting released 16 years later as a Duty-Free-only 1994 vintage edition. I got mine at Ataturk International, where I also managed to get one of the last of their Laphroaig TripleWood; however, unlike the TripleWood, I don’t think you’ll have a hard time locating these HP vintages once you make your way into any World Travel Retail shop.
Whisky vintaged from the U.N. International Year of the Family
Highland Park 1994
Abv.: 40%.
Color: Gold.
Legs: Viscous but medium-large and not very slow.
Also the U.N. International Year of the Olympic Ideal, and HP distilled this gold dram
Nose: Tropical fruits, coconut; vanilla; fruitcake; honeysuckle; touch of salt.
Taste: Cardamom, banannas in chocolate, and that classic HP marzipan.
Body: Fuller than expected in a 40% bottle, with an enjoyable mouthfeel.
Finish: Sutble dried fruit and spice, medium in length; flambéed.
Overall: Definitely the sweet side of Highland Park, but the sherry spices and the smokeyness poke through. A nice dram for all; not too light, not too heavy, not too smokey– a touch sweet, but in a dynamic way. Definitely Highland Park, but definitely a nice variation, too.
Go ahead, just try to pay duty on this bottle
Other Opinions: A nice, sweeter variant of the typically sweet/spicey/smokey Highland Park style.
- ScotchMaltWhisky just repeats the distillery notes: caramel and dark fruit on the nose, and caramel and spices/dried fruit on the palate, with a “lingering, warming smoky finish.”
- The Caskstrength boys like the sweetness that stands out in the usual Highland Park profile, along with the butterscotch on the nose and the slightly spiced palate.
- Gavin & Tom at Whisky-Pages find less caramel than the 1998 vintage but also note the sweetness of the dram and the “bonfire smoke in the finish;” they give it 3 out of 5 stars (“good”).
