Scotland, Isle of Orkney. Distillery operational. Owner: The Edrington Group Ltd

Owned by the Edrington Group, Highland Park remained for a long time somewhat of a niche malt reserved for connoisseurs and well-informed enthusiasts, notably due to its kinship with Macallan. The distillery drew its quintessence from this relationship and the access it afforded to perfect mastery of sherry cask ageing and beautifully sculpted casks. The rest comes from the island's natural, cultural and geographic heritage. Established in 1798 on Orkney, a wind- and wave-swept island where Viking blood continues to run through the veins of its inhabitants, Highland Park produces a traditional malt, characterized by its lightly peated barley which is malted on site. Although the bottle shape evolved at the turn of the 1980s, the style remained the same until the late 1990s. Playing on a profound sherry register in which subtle notes of iodine and peat smoke highlight its almost mystical Celtic temperament, Highland Park has today come completely out of the shadows. It is one of the most legitimate distilleries in the collectibles world due to its history, the consistent quality of its malt and the breadth of the range.

An Orkney single malt aged for at least 8 years, bottled after 1975 by James Grant & Co (owned by the Highland Distillers group since 1937, itself owned by the Edrington Group since 1999), bottled for the Italian market and imported by G.F. Ferraretto & C. The same bottle shape with a rounded neck was also used at the time for a 12 year old version with a strong sherry cask influence (the distillery’’s trademark until the turn of the millennium). These two versions, aged for 8 and 12 years respectively, also exist in a bottle with a straight neck and, for the 8 year old version, two types of bottleneck label (one round, one triangular). Bottle equipped with a cream screw cap, round bottleneck label and Italian tax strip.