Welcome back to another fine pairing of two single malts, where I discover them side by side, with a goal of picking out those tiny details, learning a bit about each one, and then proclaiming a winner. On today’s menu is the 4th dram from Cask Explorers‘ Advent Calendar, Ruby Edition, and it’s a whisky I haven’t tried before. We’ve got a Fire Edition of Highland Park, which I will be tasting next to my favourite 18-year-old distillery bottling. I have previously compared the latter next to the Jura of the same age, and you can read this writeup to see which one was a winner of that round. So I’m excited to kick this off, are you? But first, we need music! Now playing: Ryuichi Sakamoto – 12.

Highland Park is a distillery located in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. Founded in 1798, it is known for producing award-winning single malts, using local peat with a higher proportion of heather (because there are no trees growing on Orkney). Its 25-year-old whisky was the first to ever get a score of 100 from the Ultimate Spirits Challenge. So what about this Fire Edition? This is an uncoloured and non-chill filtered Scotch, bottled at a nice 45.2%, so it gets my approval with an integrity stamp to add. It’s a 2016 bottling (so a 2001 vintage?), aged in refill port-seasoned casks for 15 years. It comes in a limited gorgeous bottle, but we must look past all the marketing and focus on what’s inside. I think the colour is identical to that of the 18-year-old, and it’s that of burnished copper. The nose is delightful and sweet, with stewed fruit and caramel, but it’s got less of that familiar Highland Park scent that I can almost instantly recognize, even when presented blind. Let’s go in for a taste. A very lovely arrival, which echoes the sweetness, and then goes into more confectionary territory, with something like stewed plum with a dash of cardamom. It’s got a medium finish, which I really enjoy. And even though I’m sure the barley was malted with that Highland Park peat, the smokiness is very light – more like burned caramel than bog matter.

The 18-year-old retorts, with its familiar, welcoming palate. It’s all the flavours I adore, which come from a “high proportion” of first-fill sherry seasoned European and American oak casks, where the whisky has spent all of its eighteen years. It’s lighter overall, but that could be attributed to a lower ABV of a “standard” 43%. It does appear to be a little rounder and smoother, which can be justified with age, as well as, once again, the alcohol percentage. There are unmistakable sherry notes on the nose and the flavour, which translate to more of that ripe red fruit sweetness (like maraschino cherries) rather than more honey that I taste on the Fire Edition. I go back and forth between each dram, and this is the most pronounced difference. Reversing the tasting, starting with the 18-year-old and moving back to the 15-year-old, I begin to pick up on a more satin sweetness present in the slightly sharper Fire Edition. I’m sure that this is coming from the port, albeit the casks here were seasoned – that means that they were purposely filled with port to give the wood a little flavour, as opposed to having natural port stored inside them for a certain number of years. Makes sense? The 18-year-old is dubbed Viking Pride, and mine is a 2020 batch, which makes it a 2002 vintage. It’s also non-chill filtered and uncoloured, and for that, it gets another integrity star. As of this writing, the 18-year-old is already in the £115 territory (exactly a year ago, it was about £100). Meanwhile, the former limited Fire Edition goes for a whopping £200 quid!

Distillery / Region	Highland Park / Island	Highland Park / Island
Producer	The Edrington Group	The Edrington Group
Bottler / Series	Distillery bottling / Fire Edition	Distillery bottling / core range
Stated Age / Vintage	15 years old / 2001	18 years old / 2002
Cask type	Refill port-seasoned casks	First-fill sherry-seasoned oak casks
ABV / Cask Strength	45.2% / No	43.0% / No
Non-chill filtered/ Uncoloured	Yes / Yes 🌟	Yes / Yes 🌟
Price	£200	£115

So there you have it, folks. Another great side-by-side tasting, which I entirely enjoyed. And may I say this – it’s a tough call. I really like my port-aged and finished whisky (the Balvenie PortWood immediately comes to mind – too bad that I don’t have any more Fire Edition left to pair it up against the 21-year-old). I’ve had a difficult time picking out a favourite. When I attempt to make my pick, I close my eyes and try to think of what I would reach out for next [and spend my money on]. The final call on these two comes with pricing. The extra 85 GBP are just not worth it for that “limited edition” experience. It’s nice to taste it, and great if you can drop your dough, but for the £115, the core range has delivered. So, with that said, I will proclaim the Highland Park 18-year-old as the winner of this round, and now I will top myself off with another dram. Good night!

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p.s. The Travel Retail Edition of the 18-year-old is at 46% ABV and is something definitely worth seeking out. So pay attention to that label!