Highland Park – 16 Year Old Twisted Tattoo (70cl, 46.7%)

Highland Park – 16 Year Old Twisted Tattoo is a whisky from Highland Park (Islands). Aged 16 years, bottled at 46.7% ABV, 70cl. 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. With whisky matured in oak casks seasoned with Spanish Rioja wine and whisky matured in first-fill bourbon casks the result is a rich and full-bodied single malt whisky with a distinctively different character. The design of the box was created by artist Colin Dale. Twisted Tattoo