Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 Review [In Depth]
Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5
by: ALEX WANG
Founder, writer
Founder, writer
Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 Details
Distillery: Highland Park
Type & Region: Scotch, Scotland
Alcohol: 64.7%
Composition: 100% malted barley
Aged: Not stated, but at least 3 years per the rules
Color: 1.2/2.0 on the color scale (chestnut, oloroso sherry)
Price: $80-100
From the company website:
Our fifth release has been matured predominantly in first-fill, sherry-seasoned European oak casks – including Pedro Ximénez casks – plus refill casks, ex-bourbon casks and a small quantity of first-fill, sherry- seasoned American oak casks. Bottled straight from the cask, without the addition of water to reduce alcohol content, our Cask Strength Series marries the traditional craft of whisky making with a modern approach to flavour exploration.
Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 overview
I’m a big fan of cask strength Scotch, and have been for years. And if you ask me to try one, I’m going to say yes. And so, Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 was brought to my attention, and I’m really excited to dive back into bold Scotch.
Highland Park is located on the Orkney Islands of Scotland, which is a group of islands north of the main Scotland island. So FYI, if you see any Scotch mention “Orkney Islands” but not the distillery’s name, it’s Highland Park.
To be frank, I’ve had very little from Highland Park. I have an Independently bottled 12 year sherry single cask matured bottling, and that’s the full extent of it. This is also a learning opportunity for me.
For added context to this review, I didn’t read about the blend prior to doing the review, so I more or less went into this blind, except for the ABV.
While we don’t know the minimum age of the malt, Highland Park tells us more about the cask composition. They state that it’s predominantly
first-fill, sherry-seasoned European oak casks – including Pedro Ximénez casks – plus refill casks
ex-bourbon casks
small quantity of first-fill, sherry- seasoned American oak casks.
Here’s an important fact, seasoned and matured do not mean the same thing, although there are similarities. Distiller does a way better job of explaining than I do, so I recommend reading that. The long story short is that seasoned casks held sherry for a few years before being transported to Scotland. The liquid gets dumped and turned into something else, while the cask is used to age Scotch. The really fancy casks that either held or matured 10+ year old Sherry are difficult to get these days.
Seasoned or matured, you’re still going to get sherry wine character infused into the Scotch. You should expect to get dark sweetness and dark fruits such as dates, prunes, and red grapes. I’m also a big fan of sherry-influenced Scotch.
I’m also surprised at the 64.7% ABV, which is extremely high for Scotch. Scotland has very different weather than Kentucky does, and in ways that do not lend to Scotch being nearly 65% ABV. Scotland is more temperate, meaning that it’s cooler and temperatures fluctuate less. Barrels are exposed to far less intense heat and humidity that would lead to a higher ABV spirit. Yet, Highland Park somehow did it.
Let’s taste if the very high ABV provides an extra rich and fun experience in this Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 review.
This bottle was provided at no cost to me. All opinions are still my own.
As an FYI, I bought and use these Glencairn glasses for everything (they’re the best): Glencairn Crystal Whiskey Glass Set of 6, Set of 4, Set of 2, or just one. Full transparency, this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.
Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 smell
I smell darker honey, orange, vanilla, lemon, preserved cherry, roasted oak, dried prunes, maltiness, cinnamon, butter, and maybe a little smokiness. Honestly, the smokiness is faint at best, but the roastiness is more prevalent. Maybe the smoke is coming through as roastiness instead of salty and vegetal peat.
There has to be a sherry / port component in here because dark fruits and butteriness come through. (By the way, I didn’t read the materials beforehand so I didn’t know that sherry casks were used).
Highland Park Cask Strength has a good range of scents and richness, but falls behind with complexity and nuance so it doesn’t feel so mature. It’s also a little hot.
After swirling and 15 minutes of rest, I smell dense honey, dried date, creamy vanilla, apricot, orange peel, roasted oak, toasted malt, cinnamon, starfruit, and mint with some alcohol kick here and there. There’s a good mix of sherry / port cask and bourbon cask to meld the dark fruit and the more tropical fruit.
Highland Park Cask Strength has good boldness, which makes sense given the ABV, but it feels straightforward. Nothing quite pops and there really aren’t many layers to uncover.
I think the point of batch 5 was to offer a bolder experience, but it comes too much at the expense of everything else.
Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 taste and aftertaste
The flavors have dense honey, dried prunes and dates, vanilla, roasted oak, orange, starfruit, cinnamon, toasted maltiness, cinnamon, a little smokiness, and alcohol kick. The sherry / port cask dark fruits come through a lot more, as does some buttery creaminess. It’s also surprisingly quite woody and oak spicy too.
Even with the rich flavors, Highland Park Cask Strength has an aggressive, youthful, and rough side with the stronger heat and noticeable, but not overpowering, harshness.
It takes away from the overall experience, although it’s still good.
With hard “chewing” I taste rich honey, orange, starfruit, dried prune, roasted oak, cinnamon, toasted malt, vanilla, and an overall oiliness and stickiness. More tropical notes from the bourbon cask come out this time, mixing evenly with the darker wine notes. It’s a good balance of elements. At the same time, there still isn’t much complexity or nuance. It’s a wall of flavors and heat, and that’s it. Digging doesn’t reveal new layers or flavors.
“Chewing” also brings out more heat, aggressiveness, and roughness. The 64.7% ABV, even though it’s clearly high, still kicks pretty hard even for me. As good as this tastes, Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 frequently feels immature. Who knows if I’m getting old and soft, but the heat gets in the way at times.
The finish initially leaves honey, dried prune, roasted oak, toasted malt, and alcohol kick with a little bit of smoke. After “chewing”, there’s honey, starfruit, dried date, oily and roasted oak, and toasted malt on the aftertaste. It feels more oily now, so “chewing” definitely unleashes the oils.
That’s really the point – Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 mostly tastes very good, but youth (or what feels like youth) shows up too often with the heat, bite, and missing layers / complexity.
I’ve unfortunately lost some Glencairn’s while in transit, and that made me very sad. So, I wised up and bought this Glencairn Travel Case that comes also comes with 2 glasses so I don’t need to worry so much about them breaking. I think it’s great, and I think you’ll love it too.
Seriously, if you already have glasses, protect them.
Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 Rating
I am a sucker for cask strength Scotch, especially those that are unabashedly bold and rich. Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 5 is undoubtedly both of those things, but it also falls victim to the ABV enough that it’s not a “Top Shelf” experience. Well…the complexity isn’t there either so it’s multiple things.
There are some whiskeys that can adequately control 65% ABV (the 70% ABV Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon comes to mind), but Highland Park lets the heat run free just enough to pull me back from the experience. I’m not saying that it’s bad, just that it can get in the way more often than I’d like. I don’t know why Highland Park is that way, but I personally suspect that it has something to do with a lot of younger (and rowdy) malt in the blend.
I’ll admit, I didn’t read Highland Park’s website until I finished the review so I did not know going into this if there was sherry / port cask in the blend. Nonetheless, the sherry cask influence comes through and melds well with the bourbon cask and other casks to provide a varied experience that spans dark and bright fruit, oak, and spice. It’s all great to an extent.
But as well as everything melds together, the depth and layers aren’t all there. Everything is in your face, including the heat, and that’s really it. I still enjoy it, but there really isn’t more to the experience. It feels younger and less mature than it should be.
I mostly enjoy Highland Park Cask Strength Release 5, but I also have the luxury of not paying for it. For everyone else who has to pay for these whiskeys, I personally do not think that this bottle is worth the $100 or so asking price. It’s not a bad release by any means, but it doesn’t offer enough nuance and complexity to make it worth the price.
I get it, Scotch is expensive these days…but come on Highland Park…you can do better than this! Dig deep and amaze us for batch 6.
Meet the Author: Alex
I have far too much fun writing about whiskey and singlehandedly running The Whiskey Shelf to bring you independent, honest, and useful reviews, comparisons, and more. I’m proudly Asian American and can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and some Japanese.
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BrüMate NOS’R, Double-Wall Stainless Steel Whiskey Nosing Glass – 7oz (Matte Black)
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