Highland Park 16yo OB

Related whiskies : Highland Park 16 Years Old

by **bamber** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:28 pm

Picked up a bottle of this (Stansted airport) and was rather impressed.

Lacks the bitter sweet contrast that makes the HP 18 such a winner for me, but has a similar flavour profile. That buttery, leafy, heather-honey, with a hint of smokey peat, is in effect.

Somewhere between the 12 OB and 18 OB in terms of rating.

Shame it is only 40% ABV. I think it would be fantastic at 46%.

by **Admiral** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 11:42 am

Somewhere between the 12 OB and 18 OB in terms of rating.

and indeed in terms of age, too.

Seems a little peculiar for a distillery like HP to bring out an odd age-statement and make it fit so snugly in between the standard 12 and 18 year old bottlings in terms of flavour and rating.

You'd think they'd go for something a little different or quirky to make it stand out, yes?

Cheers,
Admiral

by **Spirit of Islay** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:13 pm

Admiral wrote:
Somewhere between the 12 OB and 18 OB in terms of rating.

and indeed in terms of age, too.

Seems a little peculiar for a distillery like HP to bring out an odd age-statement and make it fit so snugly in between the standard 12 and 18 year old bottlings in terms of flavour and rating.

You'd think they'd go for something a little different or quirky to make it stand out, yes?

Cheers,
Admiral

This is the 2nd time HP have done this in the UK , the last time they released a 15yo for sale in the Sainsbury Supermaket chain at £30 a bottle . Very nice it was too.....

Slainté
Gordon

by **bamber** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 4:18 pm

Admiral,
It is weird but you can get 2, 1 litre bottles for £60 at Wow, so it's a pretty good deal and it's always nice to try a new expression.

by **Deactivated Member** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:18 am

Perhaps such things get issued when there is a bit of a surplus in the stocks at a given age.

by **sasse** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 6:57 am

Higland Park is a very good whisky, i like both the 12 Y.O and the 18 Y.O
I have never seen the 16 Y.O in Sweden.

R/Sasse

by **bamber** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:14 am

MrTattieHeid wrote:Perhaps such things get issued when there is a bit of a surplus in the stocks at a given age.

Sounds plausible. Also, I suppose it allows them to sell some older whisky at a cheaper price, without cheapening the 18yo in the eyes of the public.

by **alanc** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 4:18 pm

I'm told that it's an exclusive to airport stores.

by **Choochoo** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 8:23 pm

Has anyone sampled the 16yo Highland Park from the Old Malt Cask (1984?)? It was the first independent bottling that I ever bought, and for possible sentimental reasons, is one of my all time favorites.

I’d be interesting in hearing comparisons between the official Highland Park 16yo and the 16yo OMC.

by **Tyson** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:11 am

HP 15 OB just hit stores here in Denver. I plan on picking up a bottle soon, as I currently have a bottle of 12 and 18 yo HP open. Should make for some interesting comparisons.

by **kallaskander** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:35 am

Hi there,

there is a single barrel CS bottling of a 16 year old HP from a bourbon barrel by Cadenhead. One word: superb.
In a way it makes me musing about the sense it makes to have so many age steps of one whisky. Glenfarclas does it, Macallan and many more do it. But is it really something to be happy about in the end? The distilleries have no large stocks of barrels from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. If all start to extend their range of bottlings they stretch themselves for those older barrels that give volume depth and in the case of sherry butts natural colour to the whiskies.
The Glenfarclas 10. edition Robert L. Stevenson is not a cask strength anymore like the nine before and we all know why there is no Ardbeg 17 or any Ardbeg 197x or 198x at the moment.
In order to take part of the current boom finacially a depleting of the rare and scarce older barrels together with even older and more and more common single barrel bottlings?
That can only lead to losses in quality over all and generally.

Let us just pause and think here for a moment.
Greetings
kallaskander

by **Deactivated Member** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 8:13 pm

Obviously, kk, distilleries and the people who make decisions for them do not always make the wisest choices, but I would have to think that long-term stock management is always one of their considerations. None of them wants to find at some point in the future that they forgot to stash enough away for bottlings. That said, such things as the recent shortage and high popularity of Lagavulin are impossible to predict.

It's possible that releasing a large range of ages actually helps to manage stocks.

Related whiskies : Highland Park 16 Years Old