Highland Park 2009

Last year, the number of tourists visiting Scotland's Orkney Islands approached 200,000, with an additional 130,000 visitors arriving via 140 luxury cruise ships. Tourism is vital to the local economy, though questions about its sustainability have been raised. While the impact of visitors on Orkney's environment and infrastructure has reached levels comparable to the Isle of Skye, the total value of local tourism far exceeds £50 million—a revenue stream that cannot be ignored. Highland Park has therefore decided to claim its share. The distillery's visitor center welcomes 20,000 guests annually. In early May 2019, the company opened a retail store in central Kirkwall, which not only sells Highland Park whisky but also showcases the brand and includes an educational area for distillery community training programs. The distillery is equipped with 1.5 mash tuns, 12 Oregon pine washbacks with fermentation times of 50-80 hours, and two pairs of stills. The mash tun can hold approximately 12 tonnes of grist, though currently only half of this capacity is utilized. The 2019 production plan called for processing 22 tonnes of grist per week, with an annual target of 2.5 million liters of new make spirit. Highland Park floor-malts 30% of its barley on-site across five malting floors capable of processing approximately 36 tonnes of barley at a time. The peat phenol level for in-house malted barley is 30-40ppm, while malt purchased from Simpson's company is unpeated. The distillery also maintains 19 dunnage warehouses and 4 racked warehouses. The core range includes 10-year-old Viking Scars, 12-year-old Viking Honour, 18-year-old Viking Pride, along with 25-year, 30-year, and 40-year expressions. A 21-year-old was added in 2019. The line-up also features Dragon Legend and Viking Tribe, launched in August 2018 and sold exclusively through Amazon UK. Duty-free offerings comprise the Warrior Series, which has been available for several years, with premium releases including Ragnvald and Thorfinn launched within the past two years. These were supplemented in 2018 by four new expressions: Spirit of the Bear (40% ABV, matured primarily in American oak sherry casks); Loyalty of the Wolf (14-year-old, 42.3% ABV, matured in American oak sherry and bourbon casks); Wings of the Eagle (16-year-old, 44.5% ABV, predominantly European oak sherry cask matured); and an 18-year-old Viking Pride at 46% ABV exclusively for duty-free. The limited edition Voyage of Raven is also duty-free available. Recent limited releases include a new 50-year-old, the 16-year-old Twisted Tattoo (partially matured in Rioja wine casks), Valfather—the third installment in the Viking Legend series featuring a high proportion of floor malt and aged 26 years—a first-fill bourbon cask release commemorating photographer Soren Solkjaer, and Ness of Brodgar's Legacy, available exclusively at the distillery and Triskelion. This last expression was jointly created by the distillery's three master whisky makers Gordon Motion, John Ramsay, and Max McFarlane.