DISTILLERIES

HIGHLAND PARK DISTILLERY

Welcome to the Northern most distillery in Scotland, situated on the outskirts of Kirkwall, capital city of Orkney, and our second UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first of course was the Giant’s Causeway near the Bushmills Distillery.  This time the Grainmash distillery write-up covers the home of the “Best Spirit in the World”, as pronounced by a genuine aficionado of spirits and whisky enthusiast in Spirit Journal, June 2005. 

 

One thing is for sure. The Highland Park Pagodas are magnificent. They were even subject of a BBC article, which recorded the investment of 500,000 sterling in the renovation of these wonderful architectural beauties. Given Orkney’s pull as a tourist destination, it was a good thing that the distillery chose to renovate and retain!

 

According to the distillery website, there are 5 keystones to Highland Park whisky, so rather than focus on the history and story of the distiller, this time i am going to focus on the keystones to the Highlank Park whisky:

 

Firstly, the malts are still turned by hand, and 20% of that malt is sourced from Orkney itself.  The rest comes from Tamdhu or the Simpsons. I was as surprised as you to find that Bart’s cousin was a malt producer located on the Scottish Borders.  This actually balances out the drink, because the Orcadian malt is 20 times more “phenolated” (yes that is a word) than the others and without the balance then Highland Park would share the peaty characteristics of the Islay malts.

 

Secondly, the aromatic peat is absolutely fundamental. The Orkney Peat is 9000 years old, significantly different from Islay peat, and Highland Park peat combines cuttings from three levels, the top 1500 year old Fogg level, the middle Yarphie level, and the old dark 9000 year old coal-like Moss level. With the peat being so critical, it is no surprise that the distillery owns the Hobbister Moor from whence it cometh! Simpsons, Hobbits, whatever next?  Lest we forget - there are some beautiful “Swan Necks” on Highland Park distillery copper stills, as can be seen here.

 

Well, from reading about the “peating” I can recommend it if you really like taking the sea salt spray, 100 miles an hour winds, and spitting dust. I was sold on the experience, and that’s just for harvesting. Then there’s the lighting of the peat, ensuring the malts are damp, and all that good stuff to enjoy in the barn. The mashing seems more civilised altogether.

 

One point worth mentioning in passing, not being a cornerstone you understand, is the “spirit cut” at Highland Park, which is the portioning of the spirit actually collected for maturity. The foreshots and the feints (beginnings and ends) of each run are re-distilled, so what is laid down is the essence and heart of the run. So, finding out whether other whiskies are cut in the same manner will be interesting from here on in.  But I am not quite clear what happens to the re-distilled cuts? If anyone knows, please feel free to comment. 

 

The laying down is predominantly “dunnage” style, on cool damp floors and stone walled warehouses, during which the colours and flavours from the oak sherry casks will be absorbed. Interestingly, Highland Park admits that 60—80% of the character of the whisky will be created during the dunnage, for which Highland Park use Spanish and American oak casks, where they also refer to the 2% evaporation rate as the “Angels’ Share”.

 

Now thirdly, the cool maturation is considered critical, though I was really confused by the distillery assertions. They said the temperate climate of Orkney was lacking in extremes of heat and cold, but they also said that not all the stock was matured on site.  I started to be a little disappointed as marketing spiel started to sound louder at this stage.

© 2008 GrainMash.