Highland Park The Light 17 Years 52.9% NV

Professionele reviews

Serge Valentin (90)

We’ve had the darker (read more sherried) The Dark earlier in February and thought it was rather too oak-influenced. The Light is supposed to be more ‘zesty’, let’s see… Colour: pale gold. Nose: exactly. Zestier, fresher, better chiselled, rather earthy, almost muddy in a good way, a tad sooty. Apples, pomelos, then more coastal whiffs, iodine, then ointments, mercurochrome, oysters… With water: rather perfect. Orkney mud, clay, toothpaste, wine yeasts, beer… Mouth (neat): excellent! Rather peaty, medicinal and coastal, with superb grapefruits, ginseng, more grapefruits, touches of rhubarb and kiwi, a little mint, eucalyptus drops, chlorophyll… This one’s right up my alley! With water: just excellent indeed, with lemons comings out. That always works a treat in my book. Finish: medium, very refreshing, with more chlorophyll, eucalyptus, and earthy elements. Like, mushrooms. Always a touch of peat smokiness in the aftertaste. Comments: totally classic HP without any botox or silicone. What a great distillate when it’s allowed to sing as a solo!

Gal Granov (89)

Nose: Quite fresh I must admit, and very fitting for springtime , with a nice fruity touch , with a melange of ripe peaches, pears and red apples, on top of some a nice woody backbone, vanilla and more over-ripe orange/tangerine kind of note, ending on lemon zest, sandalwood , with a floral touches. It’s really like taking a stroll in an orchard on a spring day. very nice indeed, but not very HP like, with no smoke whatsoever.

Palate: The palate is a bit more intense, peppery up front with a very nice mouthfeel, and then the fruit starts to kick in, which is beautiful : quite tropical at first with mango, passion fruit up front, then some more vanilla, hints of smoke, and finally the wood makes an entry. late , but is certainly there. More peach, and pear, make up for an excellent and quite complex palate.

Finish: longish, with apple peel, pepper, vanilla and wood, the exotic fruit is gone.



This is an excellent whisky, although it’s not very Highland Park-ish. very light and fruity at times, packing a punch as well, but the HP smoky side is very much toned down. Given this one blind, i would have a very hard time guessing what this is, for good and for bad.

A really good one in my opinion, but not your classic HP. At any rate, a tad expensive at almost 200 quid a pop. Mainly for die hard HP collectors, and fans. the bottle looks amazing as always. Good work there guys. For us mere mortals with a limited budget, there are other cheaper and more ‘classic’ styled HPs out there.

Happy Spring / Summer.

BOW (90)