Highland Park 1991 Aged 19 Years Single Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky – Mackillop’s Choice Cask 8103 (700ml)
“Mackillop’s Choice” is a range of specially selected Single Malt Scotch Whiskies drawn from individual casks. Founded in 1996 by Angus Dundee Distillers (owner of the Glencadam and Tomintoul distilleries). It is named after Lorne Mackillop. Lorne Mackillop is the heir to the chief of the Mackillop Clan, which was all but wiped out by the English in the aftermath of the battle of Culloden in 1745 during the Jabobite Rebellion.
Lorne selects the casks that are bottled in the Mackillop’s Choice range. It is a range of specially selected single malt Scotch whiskies drawn from individual casks, and are bottled at either 43% or 46% alcohol, but more predominantly at their natural cask strength, without chill-filtering or the addition of any caramel colouring, which helps preserve the malts natural characteristics of aroma and taste.
Highland Park remains the most northerly whisky distillery in Scotland, although not by much, as it is little more than a stone’s throw from fellow Orcadian, Scapa. Accounts of the distillery’s genesis vary, and the truth is probably lost to the mists of time, but it is thought that a local farmer named David Robertson founded what we now know as Highland Park distillery in 1798, on the site of an illicit still operated by nefarious smuggler (and former priest) Magnus Eunson. Since its introduction as a single malt in the late 1970s, the distillery has been awarded many plaudits, not least of which came from the late, great whisky writer Michael Jackson, who called it “the greatest all rounder in the world of whisky”. It’s characteristic style coming from the use of Sherry casks, along with an often cited heathery sweetness imparted to the spirit by way of the distinct Orcadian peat used during the malting process.
This Highland Park was distilled on the 12th of December 1991 and has spent no less than 25 years in cask number 8103 which was a single Bourbon cask. Bottled in September 2017 with an outturn of only 283 bottles. It was bottled at 53.9% ABV and boasts no colouring or chill-filtering. A brilliant single cask offering from MacKillop’s Choice and Highland Park.
Our Tasting Notes
Nose: Sugary rum aroma, chocolate coated raisins and salted caramel, hints of smoke and wonderful balanced vanilla.
Palate: Big, bold and fruity with dried orchard fruits, spicy oak and sea salt. Vanilla anglaise and wood smoke.
Finish: Long and delightful, orchard fruits, smoke and freshly cracked black pepper.
