Highland Park 12 Years Old (700 ml)

Highland Park's origin traces to illicit distilling on Holm Road, Kirkwall — a hillside site on Mainland Orkney exposed to both North Sea and Atlantic airstreams, where cool, temperate consistency slows maturation and concentrates character over time. The distillery draws from a hard-mineral spring and sits within reach of Hobbister Moor, roughly seven miles southwest, where hand-cut peat contains no tree roots — only heather, fern, and shallow organic matter — kilned to ~20 ppm phenol, producing smoke that is floral and aromatic rather than medicinal or tarry.

Approximately 20% of the annual malt requirement is floor-malted on-site using traditional hand-turning, then kilned with that Hobbister heather-peat; the remaining 80% is unpeated mainland malt. Fermentation runs 50–80 hours in 12 Oregon pine washbacks, and double distillation through low-reflux, pear-shaped stills yields a medium-heavy new make. Maturation proceeds in Oloroso-seasoned European and American oak — first-fill and refill — across 19 earthen-floored dunnage warehouses on-site, where Orkney's stable maritime cold works against excessive angel's share.

What separates this 12 Year Old from any peer is geographic exclusivity: no other distillery on earth has access to Orkney heather-peat, and trials with mainland peated malt produced a measurably different spirit — confirming the moor itself as an irreplaceable ingredient. Bottled at 40% ABV, the 12 YO represents the entry point to a house style that Michael Jackson once called the greatest all-rounder in malt whisky.