Review #721 - Highland Park 12 Year Single Cask - Flaviar Selection

Written By Me, My Wife & Whisky

Here we have an official bottling from Highland Park, but it's a single cask release, one selected by Flaviar (an online spirits club and distributor). There are a few of these Highland Park single casks floating around the market - they're often 12 or 13 years old with a distillation vintage of 2006, but we've seen some examples up to 15 years old. They're also generally matured in sherry casks; that's also the case here: 12 years spent maturing in a first fill Oloroso hogshead, which gives this an absurdly dark natural color.

Our last experience with one of these Highland Park single casks was excellent - let's see if this bottle can live up to that standard.

Highland Park 12 Year Single Cask - Flaviar Selection

Scotland/Highland - Single Malt

Price: USD 150 (2025)

Age Statement: 12 Years

Strength: 62.5% ABV

Cask Makeup: First fill European oak sherry hogshead

Details: Distilled 2006, bottled 2019; cask #7170, 306 bottles

Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 2 months from a sample. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes

Nose: Dark, earthy, with wood varnish and strong dark fruits. Fig and prune, plum, black cherries... there are also black pepper and sulphur notes, which add a savory side. The peat influence is relatively light, adding just a soft smoke; with time, this grows more and more funky.

Palate: The mouthfeel is thick, and it brings lots of peppery oak, cola, cinnamon, and bitter amaro notes. Raspberry, syrupy cherry, plum, and figs lead the way in terms of fruit; there's also a soft wood smoke note that accents the mild peat. It's quite warm with the strength; later, we find accents of ash and sharp nectarine.

Finish: Warming but still dark and brooding; the peat smoke grows stronger, toward a medium influence, and we get more wood smoke, ash, and even a bit of tobacco added to the smoke complexion. Bitter baking chocolate, blackcurrant, cola, and a bit of raisin... mineral notes and cinnamon linger in the aftertaste. It's a long finish.

Final Note: This is another monster of a smoky sherry bomb from this Highland Park single cask series. The nose is especially unique with a strong savory, funky side to it; in the palate, the fruits come to the front, while the finish is more dominated by smoke and spice. An impressively layered, evolving tasting experience, though it definitely lacks a bit of subtlety or balance with that high cask strength presentation and the heavy sherry cask influence. This is a great whisky, though, and another example of why Highland Park in sherry casks is one of our favorite whisky combinations, bar none.

Value is interesting with these Highland Park single casks - they can actually be a good value buy if you can get them for a 'reasonable' price (under $150, in our book). However, the prices seem to be all over the place, both from retail partners in the first place, but also when buying later at auction. We've seen them as cheap as $120, but as high as $300 or even more; these single casks are worth seeking out, but don't overpay too much.

Our Rating: 8.6 / 10

In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.

Value Rating: 6.46

About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.

Me, My Wife & Whisky
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