Highland Park Whisky Live 10 Year Old

Highland Park released this bottle to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the London festival WhiskyLive (which took place in February 2010). I was lucky enough to have a member of this community (thanks @Stu_R!) to send me three bottles.

Only 600 were created at a cask strenght of 59,3% ABV. The cask was handpicked by famous whisky writers Rob Allanson and David Broom.

Let me say beforehand that this is only my second HP so far. I only had the HP 12 before and didn't make any notes at the time, so I have little to compare this dram to.

The color is a beautiful gold on the verge of amber. The legs in the glass are magnificent.

Straight

The nose is grand, with soft peat, caramel and dried fruit, primarily raisins. Quite grown up. The high ABV doesn't 'sedate', if you know what I mean. It hides it's young age wonderfully.

It has a silky mouthfeel with sweet caramel and dried fruit from the nose doing a fantastic pas-de-deux with the slightly bitter peat. There is also some heather and brown sugar with some caramelised orange peel to make it complete. Masterfully spiced.

The finish is very nice and long with spicy caramel playing first violin.

Nevertheless, this is a bit too hot for me.

With Water

Water doesn't do the nose any good, with slightly salty touches and even something like fried bacon. Luckily it is fast overtaken by sweet fruit.

It's better in the mouth, though. Almost chewable. Thanks to the lessened ABV, the caramel and heather come out nicely.

The finish remains long and spicy.

The bottle cost 50 quid at the festival and is almost sold out. There are still a few bottles left on the HP website (albeit at 55 quid). I quite liked this dram and got the complete range - bar the very expensive 40 year old and all are minitatures except for this one - and plan a complete HP tasting soon.

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