There is a lot of hot air expelled about whisky. Should you add a drop of water to your snifter? Should on-the-rocks ever be an option outside Manhattan? These are all, at the end of the day, personal considerations. What is vital, what is critical to the dram of your choice, is the skill, care and knowledge which has gone into making it. And making whisky to perfection is what Highland Park do. Is it, as claimed, The Best Spirit in the World? That's impossible to say, because Highland Park make so many good spirits. In fact, after a few hours of tasting I was still be pulled from the more subtle notes of the 12-year-old single malt to the longer, smokier and sweeter finish of the superlative 40-year-old. The conditions and materials used in making and ageing these whiskies are carefully monitored, from the type of peat used to the quality of the malt to the oak used in the casks. Even the weather conditions in the Orkneys have an effect on the end product. I drink whisky a lot. I know my single malts. Where do I sit on Highland Park? i sit firmly with the Distillery Manager Russell Anderson: having chewed a few mouthfuls of the 18-year-old I can say, with a warm glow, that it is classic drop: peat, smoke, oak. Every man should have a bottle, to be brought out only on special occasions. Like days ending in a Y.

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