Highland Park 12 is $90 for members at Dan Murphy's this week. That works out at about $4.07 a standard drink across the roughly 22 standard drinks in the bottle, which keeps a pour at home under the $6.28 a standard drink of a $13 pint at the pub.
Here is the thing worth knowing before you weigh any of that. Highland Park 12 fits nearly every foot near it: it sits in the top 16% of bottles for how broadly it's liked. Plenty of whiskies are loved by a narrow set of drinkers; this is one of the few that lands with almost anyone you hand it to.
Now put a figure on that goodwill. Ask the drinkers of the bottles closest to it what it would be worth to them, each starting from what they already pay for their own, and the answers run from $69 to $95. At $90 for members, this week's price sits inside what those drinkers would pay, and every one of them who shares its flavours puts it at nine-tenths or more of their own bottle.
And the whisky itself earns the attention. The nose is fragrant and floral, with heather and a little spice; the palate is smooth and honeyed, with citrus and malt, and the finish is warm and long, carrying a distinctive thread of wood smoke. Orcadian peat from the distillery's own floor maltings and a run of ex-sherry casks give it a character that is hard to mistake for anything else.
If you fancy a change, two bottles close by will carry the night. Bowmore 12 is $95 for members, usually around $110, and to a Highland Park 12 drinker it gives about 100% of what the Highland Park does for 106% of its price; expect tropical fruit and sweet smoke on the nose, then peaches, honey and a fuller smoke on the palate, with brine, cocoa and citrus as it fades. Cragganmore 12 is $86, usually around $86, and gives about 99% of what the Highland Park does for 95% of its price; it leans to cider, heather and ginger on the nose, ripe red apples with honey and vanilla fudge on the palate, and a light smoke beside black pepper and oak in a long finish. Line the three up and the willingness to pay barely moves: Bowmore a touch above, Cragganmore a touch below, Highland Park sitting between them.
So who is it for? If Highland Park 12 is already your bottle, $90 for members is simply what it costs this week, and nothing here asks you to move. If you drink Bowmore, you'll find the Highland Park a shade gentler on the smoke for a little less outlay, and the two sit so close that a swap costs you almost nothing in the glass. If Cragganmore is your pour, you'll recognise the red-apple and light-smoke family from the first nose. And if all three are new to you, Highland Park 12 is the one that agrees with the widest set of drinkers, which makes it an easy place to begin.
None recorded.
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