Highland Park Cask Strength Release No. 5
Style: Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Producer: Edrington Group
Origin: Orkney, Scotland, UK
ABV: 129.4 Proof (64.7%)
Mashbill: 100% malted barley
Age: No Age Statement on bottle
MSRP: $100
Availability: Nationally, but limited allocation
Reviewed By: G. Clay Whittaker
The Highland Park brand struggled through many Viking-themed ups and downs throughout the 2010s. While iconic bottles like Highland Park 18 Year and 15 Year were hard to find or outright discontinued, limited editions named after Norse mythology’s lesser-known characters, like Freya, Odin, and Loki from the Valhalla Collection, presented an Orkney roulette for consumers: Would it be delicious or disappointing?
The 2020s have set the Viking ships back on the right course; however, in place of the Ragnarok-level chaos is a neat and orderly collection of annual cask strength releases. These whiskies have been just what Highland Park needed: an affordable and understandable entry point for a simply incredible single malt scotch.
Highland Park Master Whisky Maker Gordon Motion can make each release unique and uniquely on-brand. “With each Cask Strength release,” he said in a release, “I’m looking for something unique to deliver a different flavor characteristic.”
The soul of Highland Park has always been a trademark heather honey herbaceousness and a low rumble of sherry and smoke.
For Highland Park Cask Strength No. 5, this ‘Motion’ expression pivoted from Oloroso to Pedro Ximénez casks. These “sweet, dark, dessert sherry wine matured in these casks, helps deliver notes of spicy, sun-dried fruits and cloves to the final whisky.”
Finishing can seem like a blunt tool for whisky makers. If you take a malty distillate and age it in sherry, it easily becomes a sherry bomb. If you finish it in ex-bourbon barrels, you expect the whisky to take on some of bourbon’s vanilla and caramel character.
Motion uses Pedro Ximénez casks, first-fill European oak casks, first-fill American oak, and ex-bourbon to weave a tapestry of flavors. It’s rare that so many elements don’t muddy their shared waters; it’s rarer that the blend is greater than the sum of its parts.
What They Say
• Whiskeybase.com: 89/100 Points
• The Whiskey Shelf: 3/5 Stars
• Whiskeycast.com: 92/100 Points
What We Say
Color: Deep golden honey, dangling off the wand in sunlight.
Nose: Touches of baking pie and sticky toffee pudding, counterbalanced by herbal, mezcal-y smoke, buttery teases of vanilla and heather honey.
Palate: While the alcohol hits momentarily, the palate is quickly consumed with dry oak, gooey banana bread, and earthy hints of milk chocolate and macadamia nuts. Traces of nougat and dried apple tease as you work it around your mouth and let it linger on the tongue.
Finish: It’d be fair to assume this whisky would go dark on the finish, but it leans surprisingly tropical. Pineapple, orange flesh and pith, and Meyer lemon flavors pervade before those big, baked, nutty aromas return climactically, flecked with hints of buttered soda bread.
Splash water, tease out some more restrained flavors, or relax and enjoy the raisiny richness of a stand-out cask-strength scotch. Or do both — you’ve got time until next year’s lands.
Rating: Four Stars
★★★★☆
★ Not Recommended
★★ Recommended
★★★ Highly recommended
★★★★ Excellent
★★★★★ Ethereal
Clay Whittaker is a prolific freelance spirits, culture, and lifestyle writer. His work has been featured in some of the top print and digital publications like Esquire, Maxim, Men’s Journal, Southern Living, Popular Science, NBC, NPR, The Daily Beast, Playboy and Bourbon+. His media resume also includes assistant editor and tasting coordinator for Cigar Aficionado and editor at large for the Bourbon Review.
