Bought – Best of Whisky, Holland, 26th August 2014
Ratings:
87/100 – Whisky Bible 2014
83.14/100 – Whiskybase (average from 37 votes)
Originally this bottling by Highland Park was made for Travel Retail, so only available in selected airports. Last time I travelled in July there was no sign of it in Heathrow, or Aberdeen airport. It seems it has been superseded by the HP Warrior range. I found this bottle when doing my first online whisky shop from Holland, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover something unavailable in the UK.
Although Jim Murray in his Whisky Bible gives this HP an excellent mark in the high 80s he’s disappointed that it could have been so much better. He concludes with “the finish is dull and the usual complexity of the malt is vanished behind a murky veil”. Without this it would have scored in the 90s. A shame but 87/100 still classes this HP 1994 as “very good to excellent whisky definitely worth buying”.
Video review by Frozen Summers here.