Highland Park 18 Year Old – 70cl

Highland Park 18, known as Viking Pride, is one of the great sherried island malts, and for years it has been quietly held up as one of the best-value 18-year-olds in Scotch. It is built on a high proportion of first-fill sherry-seasoned oak, both European and American, which gives it that deep, dark-fruited richness underpinned by the distillery's own gentle peat.

Highland Park is made on Orkney, the archipelago off Scotland's far north, which places it among the Island whiskies rather than the mainland Highlands. The distillery still floor-malts a portion of its barley and dries it over aromatic Orcadian peat cut from Hobbister Moor, a heathery, almost incense-like smoke quite unlike the medicinal peat of Islay. That signature runs right through this 18-year-old.

The nose is layered and generous: brandied cherries, currants and grape skin, dark caramel and honey, laced with soft heather smoke. The palate is mouth-coating and complex, dried apricot and honeycomb, gingersnap and toffee, creamy hazelnut, candied orange peel and warm sherried spice. The finish carries a faint Orkney sea-salt tang over lingering smoke and fruit. Bottled at 43% ABV, it is beautifully balanced neat, though a small drop of water teases out the honey and softens the smoke.

This is a special-occasion malt: pour it when you have time to sit with it and let those layers unfold.

How to Serve

Neat in a Glencairn or tulip glass, with the option of a drop of water. Never chill it, which would flatten the smoke and sherry.

Where to Drink It

The Connaught Bar, for a benchmark malt in a benchmark room. American Bar at The Savoy, for a bit of occasion. Dukes Bar in St James's, for an unhurried after-dinner dram.

Food Pairings

The heather smoke and sherry make this a natural with roast game — venison especially. A board of aged Gouda wouldn't go amiss either.