Every so often, a bottle comes along that keeps you guessing with every nose and every sip. For me, that bottle is the Thompson Brothers 22-year-old Highland Park, matured in a refill sherry butt, bottled at a hearty 55.9% ABV and limited to just 336 bottles.
I originally bought it for the tasting club I run in Manchester, thinking that an aged Highland Park under the Thompson Brothers label was always going to be interesting. What I did not expect was for it to be quite this interesting.
Highland Park is a distillery most of us know well. Hailing from Orkney, it produces a moderately peated style built around those signature heather honey notes, alongside the milk chocolate, coffee and honey that seem to mull around so beautifully together.
This bottling starts exactly where you would expect, with classic dark chocolate and espresso, but it quickly reveals something more unusual.
On the nose I found Nutella, that nutty oily hazelnut quality, and a distinct peanut butter brittle character, almost like a cereal bar with peanuts baked into it. Interestingly, those notes were far more dominant when I first opened the bottle two months ago. Time has quietened them, allowing a coastal, mineral, saltwater and herbaceous side to push forward.
The palate is where this whisky truly separates itself. For all the subtlety of the nose, this has to be one of the most forward, punchy and aggressive flavour profiles I have ever tasted on a whisky of this age at cask strength. It arrives with that classic coffee and honey delivery, then throws out a genuine cacophony of flavour: rose water, Turkish delight, fresh basil, dill and even a slightly oniony, chive-like note.
The dryness builds relentlessly, and on later sips I found myself thinking of Italian amaro and French vermouth, all herby, bitter and dry rather than sweet. The finish is long, chewy and darkly intense, exactly what you would hope for at nearly 57% and 22 years old.
I love how the label captures this journey, morphing from the light to the dark side, and the liquid does precisely that. It is an expensive bottle at £150, but the Thompson Brothers have always delivered value, and I refuse to beat them up on pricing.
This earns a solid nine out of ten from me. It is Highland Park with absolutely no reins put on it, and one of the most genuinely fascinating whiskies I have tried in a long time.
Have you tried any independent bottlings that completely changed how you view a distillery you thought you knew? Let me know in the comments.
To see my full tasting, check out my YouTube video.
Read the full article at Why the Thompson Brothers 22-Year-Old Highland Park is the Most Intriguing Whisky I’ve Poured in Years
