Highland Park 1989 SMWS 4.145 Tasting Notes and Ratings.

Highland Park 1989 SMWS 4.145

Added on Thursday, Mar 24, 2011 at 07:26 PM

Bottler:

Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Age:	21 yrs	Type:	Scotch
Vintage:	1989	Subtype:	Single Malt
ABV:	52.00 %	Region:	Highlands
Price:	$145	Availability:	Specialty Stores

"Sand dunes and Heather moorland" Distilled May 1989. Refill Hogshead.

Member Ratings and Notes

Chris

N: White wine, apples, light. Lemongrass.
P: Sweet apple sauce, slightly oily, nice punch from the abv.
F: Some bready crumble to finish things off.
Refreshing and enjoyable, fun at this strength. I was rather surprised to find out this was a Highland Park, seemed very lowland to me, like perhaps a Rosebank.

Dave

Nose is like sticking my head in a barn. Huge malty hay with grass and wet fur (not like stinky dog but just....well....wet). Palate is more of the same. Farm life and fruits mixed together. Not in a bad way, just not what I look for most of the time.

HIGHLAND PARK??? I also tasted this blind - this is nothing like any Highland Park I have ever tried. The names on these just crack me up....heather moorland??? okay.

Andy

n: trail mix (with dried apricots)

p: Inexplicably a new make taste and (explicably) raisins. Very light for a 21year. I'm wondering what kept this from aging. It's like a 3 year malt. Not bad of course but not what you'd expect and probably not up to par with the best HP can do.

Adam

Nose is sharp and acrylic, plastics and oils, like they've been a little singed.

Palate... hmmm… not for me. An uninteresting, rather plain cask-strength delivery of not-muchness. With a little dry smoke on the edges. This really strikes me as being in the Cadenhead's house style circa 1990 -- I know that's an obscure reference, but suffice it to say that The Duke describes that style as "metallic lemon water." (Although, now looking at his notes, the Duke must have been on one of his typical laudanum hallucinations when tasting this one).

Fuji

Warm maltiness with underlyining sweetness. Smells dirty or tainted. Big spiciness. Not too oily on the palate. Farm yardy notes with bitter tea and rusty metal notes.

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