Highland Park Single Cask Series, "Germany"

Highland Park is known for many things, including its "location releases." These are typically single cask strength bottlings named after places like "London," "Amsterdam," or "Gotham City" (and yes, that's a real one, you can look it up). This review is for a Single Cask Strength bottling called "Germany," bottled at 65.1% ABV, 10 years old, released in 2018 from cask No. 140, which was a first-fill American oak sherry puncheon. Only 618 bottles were produced. The nose is quite good and powerful, with notes of cigarettes, ashes, prunes, dark chocolate, apricots, and leather. On the palate, I detected only two distinct notes, but they were well-executed: white chocolate and cherries. The finish was a bit too raw, with sulfuric and metallic notes alongside cherries. Overall, this was a decent whisky that didn't offer a great deal of complexity. I'm a fan of Highland Park and enjoy cask strength whiskies, but I haven't fully appreciated any of Highland Park's Cask Strength expressions. For some reason, I remain unimpressed. It's still an above-average dram, and I rate it 84 out of 100.