Brine

Highland Park 16 Year Twisted Tattoo

Since beginning their distillery on Orkney in 1798, Highland Park has been crafting scotch and working with artisans from around the world, continually reinventing itself while also holding true to their history and traditions. A recent rebranding effort has seen them lean more heavily into the Viking influence of that area of Scotland, often seen in evocative names to accompany the usual age statements. The Highland Park 16 Year is called the Twisted Tattoo after Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent of Norse legend. The design and packaging was the result of a partnership with Danish tattoo artist Colin Dale. Highland Park regularly uses ex-sherry casks as part of their standard maturation process but in the Twisted Tattoo, the scotch was finished in ex-Rioja casks.

By Adam | December 20, 2022 | Island | No Comments |

Tomatin currently offers a portfolio largely comprised of age statement whiskies, some of them cask finishes. Cù Bòcan is the name of a legendary hellhound said to roam the area around the village of Tomatin and is also the distillery’s equivalent of their Skunk Works (or, closer to whisky than aircraft, Midleton’s Method and Madness micro distillery). It’s a place where Tomatin can experiment and try things outside their normal wheelhouse. The brand’s tagline is “Unlock the Unusual” and seeks to explore the smokier side of the Highland profile. The distillery distills lightly peated barley in small batches every winter, then matures them in a variety of wine casks before the blending process. The Cù Bòcan represents a long return of sorts for the distillery, as they were one of the first distilleries to move away from using peat to smoke their barley after WWII.

By Adam | November 30, 2022 | Highland | No Comments |

OOLA was founded in 2010, making it one of the oldest distilleries in Seattle. Since then, owner Kirby Kallas-Lewis and team have crafted a portfolio of gins, vodkas and whiskies. Eager to tap into the creative juices – and lax regulations – around whiskey production, one of the early series to feature whiskies is OOLA’s Whiskey Discourse. This series is about using creative combinations or influences to encourage drinkers to enter into discussion of what’s in their glass. The OOLA Smoked Whiskey is the second release in the series. Starting with a mash bill similar to the distillery’s bourbon, comprised of corn, rye, malted barley (which is smoked with apple wood and cherry wood) and wheat, combined with an unnamed Highland scotch.

By Adam | November 10, 2022 | Foreign | No Comments |