A Travel Exclusive: Highland Park Einar

It's almost September, we're meant to be at the height of summer and everyone is on holiday, what do you associate with this other than Vikings? Akin to their rampaging and pillaging around Europe I'm sure many of you are off on "holidays" to plunder far away lands. So, whilst travelling, why not pop into the duty free and pick up a bottle of travel exclusive whisky as Leif Eriksson would have done summer 1000AD? (Details of how you can pre-order a bottle to be ready for collection from your airport of choice are below!)

Highland Park is the most northern distillery in the UK and is increasing in popularity since a recent re-branding and has now overtaken Lagavulin for sales. The Einar whisky is named after a viking and former ruler of Orkney, its flavours are supposed to mirror those of the fierce and relentless norseman.

The nose is driven by smoke and spice, with cinnamon, orange peel becoming apparent in the middle and then caramel starting to come through towards the tail. The nose is very quite different to most peated whiskies in it's sweetness, without the medicinal qualities.

On the palate it is apparent the Einar most have had a smoky temprament with smoke absolutley dominating. Some citrus peel does develop however, along with burnt popcorn and caramel notes that come out on the finish.

This is a really interesting whisky and showcases another style that can be made whilst utilising peat flavours. If you are going through a Duty Free I really recommend picking up a bottle of Highland Einar, which you can pre-order for £46.99 and have it delivered to the relevant airport. Also, if you know someone who collects whisky this would be a fantastic gift, being something they wouldn't normally come across. Now I just need another holiday...