Park'em all: Highland Park 25 yo 48.1%, Highland Park 30 yo 48.1% and Highland Park 40 yo 48.3%

Sergii birthday and smallest HP tasting (a year ago I bit him and infected with orkneyphilia, you know). 

Just 3 samples tonight:

Highland Park 25 yo 48.1% - they were producing this strength from 2006 till 2012, one of my favourite malts actually.

More or less the same it was before: chocolate and apples, salt and oak, grapes and vanilla, but the nose isn't that long and so changing as I remember it. Well, either a bottle was open for quite some time, or that wasn't the most successful year, or maybe something wrong with me, previous bottle scored easily 94/100 (just one more reason not to take all these scores seriously, they are so personal). 

Score = 23 23 23.5 23.5, 93/100!

Highland Park 30 yo 48.1% - this strength was made from 2006 till 2012, again one of my favourite malts :) 

Nose: powerful and refined with bags of oranges, heather honey and pollen.

Taste: nice attack, creamy, spicy, lots of honey again with a pinch of salt.

Finish: very long and drying, milk chocolate and soft spices, hint of smoke and lingering oak.

Overall: this particular bottle is gorgeous,  last year I scored them vice versa: 94/100 for 25 yo and 93/100 for 30 yo.

Score = 23.5 23 23.5 24, 94/100!

Highland Park 40 yo 48.3% - this strength stands for years 2008 - 2015, in 2016 newer version with 47.5% was launched. 

Nose: oak, leather and quite a lot of smoke at first. Quite shy initially, but after 10-15 min it unfolds into crescendo of smoked pears, pine rezin, tobacco leaves and even some menthol and eucalyptus. 

Taste: oily and drying, lo-ots of spices, orange peels and ashes. 

Finish: quite endless, bitter almonds and darkest chocolate, noticeable oak (which is logical for 40 years spent in a cask) with touch of resin.

Overall: well, what can I say, certainly it's not 4 times better than 30 yo (if we compare the prices), but HP fans should try it at least once. 

Score = 24 23 24 24, 95/100!