Tasting Highland Park with Martin Markvardsen

The Ladies’ Share’s 13th meeting

This was a meeting we all looked forward to since senior brand ambassador Martin Markvardsen from Highland Park was doing a tasting for us!

Highland Park is a distillery on the Orkney Islands, founded by the slaughter/smuggler/beetle (church-servant) Magnus Eunson. Some of us knew the whiskies well, and some of us did not. Martin was a great storyteller and knew a lot about whisky. He had our full attention from the moment we walked in and through tasting seven whiskies.  The theme for the tasting was Highland Park whiskies unavailable in Norway. We knew we were in for a treat!

The line-up were as follow:

1. Highland Park 10 YO, the very first 10 year old, only available in Germany, Holland and Canada
2. Highland Park Cask Strength, made on request from Systembolaget and therefore only available in Sweden
3. Highland Park Distillery exclusive, hand-filled by Tone at the distillery
4. Highland Park St. Magnus
5. Highland Park Hjärta 12 YO
6. Highland Park Loki 15 YO

As a bonus Whisky Saga  granted us all a taste of his Highland Park Odin 16 YO.

We learnt all about how Highland Park distill their whiskies,  and we were quite impressed how they still are doing the process in the traditional way. We also learnt about, and enjoyed, the three dimensional taste Highland Park wants in their whiskies; smoke, honey and fruitiness. Not to mention after this evening there is not one lady that do not know what floor-malting is, or how important the climate is for the angels’ share and why the various geographic locations of peat give different aromas to whisky.

We also learnt how to diverse a rock in the sea from an Island the way the Orcadians do. For those of you who wonder: An island is a place where a sheep can survive a full year without human interference.Well, the Orcadians certainly know how to make good whisky.

We had a wonderful evening with much laughing, learning and tasting. The tasting notes from this meeting will be published eventually. We can assure you they all have good score!

– Marte