Highland park Kirkwall

Highland Park is known for releasing numerous single cask bottlings for various outlets. This particular expression, named "Kirkwall," honors the distillery's location in the Orkney Islands. It's an 11-year-old bottle with a very high alcohol content of 64.5% ABV, one of only 598 decanters produced. It has a copper color. On the nose, initial notes of gooseberries are present, followed by green and purple prunes. A small amount spilled on my hand released an aroma of ashes. It's very fruity and soapy, with a cocoa butter note. It's not as intense as one might expect for a 64.5% ABV dram, showing notes of black coffee beans. After the first sip, creamy chocolate emerges, along with coffee and cocoa, and milk powder. The nose is definitely the best aspect of this single malt, with hints of caramel and toffee. On the palate, it initially presents as ashy with a strong acidity, like tart green prunes dipped in ashes. It's too intense. A second sip reveals a thick, pleasant toffee, and the bitterness is enjoyable, but then an earthy water flavor appears, which isn't great. The acidity is reduced on the third sip, but it remains very tongue-scorching. The aftertaste is characterized by burnt cigarettes, burnt tobacco, an overload of salt, burnt hay, and burnt newspapers – essentially, everything is burnt. It's not necessarily unpleasant, not overly enjoyable, but not unbearable either. It's like a paradise for smokers, which I am not. It precisely resembles smoking a bitter cigar. There's a slight scorching sensation on the sides of the tongue. Overall, this is an interesting whisky, but not particularly outstanding. I find Highland Park's cask strength expressions to be too raw and sometimes off-putting. This one isn't bad, but it feels underdeveloped, and while the Highland Park character is discernible, it clearly needs more time in the barrel. My rating for this dram is 84 out of 100.