Gordon & MacPhail Highland Park 8 Year
After yesterday’s review of Highland Park’s official 12 year old expression, Viking Honour, I thought I’d keep the HP theme going with a look at a young independent bottling of the Orkney single malt released by Gordon & MacPhail.
This is an inexpensive single malt. It’s one of the least expensive bottles of single malt whisky I’ve ever purchased, coming in at under $35. It’s young. It’s only 43% ABV. Probably chill filtered. And I’m not exactly a huge fan of Highland Park in general. But hey, for the price, I couldn’t resist giving it a try.
As I mentioned in my Viking Honour review, I find HP 12 to taste quite young, younger than its stated age. Perhaps that’s due to poor cask management, or perhaps it has something to do with the distillation process, I’m not sure. Regardless, I was curious to see how an even younger HP coming from an indie source might compare to the standard 12 year.
At least there are no Vikings or other gimmicks on the label, so a decent start.
Gordon & MacPhail Highland Park 8 Review
Type: Single Malt Scotch
Region: Highlands (Island)
Age: 8 years
ABV: 43%
Nose
Enticing but light, with notes of autumn leaves, red apples, clove spice, cinnamon, and nectar. A bit of smokiness. Heather and honey too.
Palate
Light. A lot of the same notes as the nose, but dialed down. Red apples. Light and flowery peat smoke. Fresh Bosc pears. Tobacco. Not bad, but just too weak for my tastes. Somewhat thin mouthfeel, fairly unsubstantial. Not all that memorable as it goes, although perhaps it would have been had it been bottled at a higher ABV.
Finish
Medium in length at best. Apples and floral peat. A touch of honey. A faint hint of spice.
Overall
Looking at the notes I’ve listed, I feel like I should really like this dram, but it’s just too damn light in flavor. It’s hard to complain considering the price for a bottle. Still… sometimes you get what you pay for. Much like the official Highland Park 12 year old, this 8 year old HP teases you with delusions of grandeur, but ultimately fails to raise your pulse the way a great dram does.
I will say that this whisky improved after some oxidization. Quite significantly actually. Barely drinkable when I first opened the bottle, by the end the whisky had opened up and offered a solid bit of enjoyment. If you do find yourself with a bottle of this guy, be sure to let it breathe.
How does it compare to the official HP 12 year old? I set up a blind tasting of the two to find out. It was closer than I thought. I was able to pick out which was which correctly, but wasn’t convinced which I preferred. I repeated the experiment several times, and each time I correctly guessed which was the 8 year and which was the 12 year, but I wavered back and forth on which I liked better. They’re fairly similar drams, which isn’t too surprising of course. The HP 12 had a bit more richness, but the G&M 8 year seemed to carry a bit more punch and even a little more complexity. Neither one is great, neither one is terrible. Considering the price difference, I’d go for the G&M if I were deciding between the two.
SCORE: 5/10
Final Thoughts
Although I’m ultimately not a big fan of this bottle, I did manage to put it to good use. I was so bored with this whisky when I first opened it that I decided to experiment with it (and HP 12) in a cocktail recipe—the end result of which is a cocktail I decided to name Viking Tears (you can find the recipe on my Cocktails page). I ended up using the vast majority of the bottle to make cocktails for friends and for myself. Not a bad use of a cheap whisky. That said, as I just polished off the last ounce or so, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit more than when I first opened the bottle and almost regret using so much of it in mixed drinks. Ah well.
Buying Advice: It’s cheap. $35. Hard to criticize a single malt at that price in this day and age. If $35 is your whisky budget, then you’d be hard pressed to find a better malt for your money. And if you’re looking for a Scotch to use in a cocktail, then this would be a good choice. Of course, that’s if you can find a bottle, as this particular G&M isn’t all that ubiquitous.
Questions about my scoring system? Refer to the Review Method & Scoring Scale page.
For more reviews, check out the Whisky Review Archive.
