Highland Park launches new whiskies in HK

Scotch producer Highland Park has launched two whiskies in the Hong Kong market, namely ‘Triskelion’, a new whisky made by three of the distillery’s master whisky makers and a single cask dedicated to the local market.

Launched globally in November this year, Highland Park Triskelion has just arrived Hong Kong.

The whisky is made by Gordon Motion, the distillery’s current master whisky maker, Max McFarlane, the longest serving master whisky maker at the Edrington Group, and John Ramsay, the master whisky maker who contributed much to the early development of the house. Each of them has experience in whisky making spanning from 21 to 44 years.

The whisky was created using a combination of first-fill Sherry seasoned Spanish oak butts, first-fill Sherry seasoned American oak casks and first-fill bourbon barrels and hogsheads. The three principal cask types were balanced with a small quantity of refill casks to soften the final flavour.

Motion said: “It was fun and a real honour to work again with John and Max. We decided to create an un-aged single malt as this gave us complete flexibility to consider a whole range of different cask types, flavour profiles as well as ages. To quote John Ramsay ‘You don’t need an age statement to deliver real quality’.

“It took us a while to agree on the final flavour profile, but we are very proud of the result – it tested our skill set, our craftsmanship but not our friendship!”

Moreover, the house has also released an exclusive collectable item from the ‘Single Cask’ series for the local market. Hand-picked by Motion, the Single Cask Series – Hong Kong exclusive was distilled in 2003, aged in a first-fill European Sherry oak butt for 16 years before bottling in 2019. The cask, numbered 4400, produced a limited run of 615 bottles only. It is non-chill filtered, a natural colour cask strength single malt whisky that is full of distinctive, robust flavours yet still characteristic of the classic Highland Park style.