Highland Park - my passion

All encompassing. That is my best way to summarize my trip to Highland Park boot camp. The camp is hosted by Gerry Tosh, and Pat his sidekick (and Visitor centre manager),  His description and tour of the distillery for the group(who all varied in whisky knowledge) was so simple and 'to the point' even a 5 year old could understand.

That's part of the beauty of whisky; they have been making it for hundreds of years, its not rocket science, its the basics with a few tweaks and nuances which result in every whisky in the world tasting different!

 One of the keystones which makes Highland Park so unique is its aromatic peat. The Peat they use to dry and flavour their hand turned barley, is dug up on Hobbister Moor, no other whisky in the world uses this peat. Its fragrant, heathery, not as phenollic as a lot of other peat(like that on Islay). It's one of the reasons why the Highland Park smoke gently caresses your tongue rather than sending  it into shock... strange though , well peat is decomposed plant vegetation or simply dead plants... and it  ends up making a whisky so magical, so charismatic and oh so charming.

We then went off to the magnificent cliffs on the island which seriously look as if they are home to the edge of the world, huge waves sound like explosions, wind cuts through your layers of clothes , but the location's intensity is honestly mind blowing. The climate on Orkney is almost constant, their summers don't reach much more than 12 C.

The constant mild temperature and the intense wind, believe it or not influence ALL elements of Highland Park's whisky making,  it would not have its same magical allure and instant attraction if it was made anywhere else in Scotland.

Next time you sip a dram, remember it's relatively simple to make, but all the peripheral elements that make it beautiful are unique to each distillery. Take time to appreciate what's been crafted  the through wisdom of past generations and that takes years and years to  create and in many cases just a few minutes to drink...

Slainte