Dark Origins

As I’ve said before and I’ll say it again my favorites are the Islay scotches but I’m always up for a new experience and I’m trying to expose my palate to a little of everything.  So when I was at the liquor store I was in the mood to try something new-ish.  A while back I had reviewed Highland Park 30 year.  That was extraordinary, perhaps because of the age.  I’m not usually a highland drinker but I liked Highland Park, the northern most distillery on earth, you can’t get higher than that.  I decided to try Highland Park Dark Origins.  The bottle looked really cool and since I like Highland Park 30 year I thought there was a good chance that more Highland Park would be a home run.  I was right.  I don’t know how old this scotch is, it doesn’t have an age on it.  It’s roughly 80$ per bottle and 46.8% ABV.  My account of the flavors is based on my experience and may differ from that found on the Highland Park web site.

The smell is mildly sweet and spicy with the smell of roasted nuts.  The most noticeable cents are licorice and cedar.

As for taste, the first sip is spicy.  This is one of the spiciest scotches I’ve tasted.  It is a hot spice like black pepper and chilies.  This gets noticeably hotter the more you hold it in your mouth.  There is also a noticeable malt flavor and smokiness.  Swallowing releases a refreshing sweetness, sugar, caramel and honey.  The after taste is floral, a little bitter, and stays for a long time.  This is a complex tasting scotch.  There are some similarities with the 30 year I’ve had but this is very distinct.  The 30 year wasn’t spicy at all, I recall that being a nice mix of smoky and sweet whereas Dark Origins is more complex and balances spicy and sweet with a myriad of other flavors in the background.  I was impressed and I’m starting to move away from Islay and over to Orkney.

Copyright 2015 David R Bergman