Visit to Orkney and Highland Park September

Last week I got to visit the Orkney Islands again and also of course the Highland Park Distillery. Here is a little blog about my journey.

Arrival
The last time I flew to the Orkney Islands there was a little storm and the flight was a little rough, completely different from this flight as it was a beautiful and sunny day. I stayed at The Kirkwall Hotel, a wonderful place with nice rooms and my favorite thing: The Highland Park whisky bar. 

Westray
The next morning, we went to the ferry very early together with our colleague Lee from the distillery. The ferry took us for a trip in between all the wonderful islands and with the sun in our faces and the wind blowing, this was a wonderful way to wake-up and start our day. As we went along and passed by the islands I was amazed by their beauty and I found it very cool to see the islands that were not inhabited any more but where you could still see the ruins of former buildings. You think about the history, everything that happened there. After an hour and a bit we arrived at the second most northern Island of Orkney called Westray. We had the pleasure of having wonderful hosts for the day, Westraak tours. The first stop was to go and see if there were still some Puffins around. Very excited, we all took a stroll to the crags, and there they were! The Puffins! I was really amazed by how small they are. In my mind they were a lot bigger! One thing off my bucket list! Score! The rest of the day we went to different cliffs, old Viking ruins and the Westray museum where I found and bought a CD with old Orkney dialect poems. Fun! At some points at the cliffs, I just couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing or where my feet were standing. So breathtakingly beautiful! What a day! A day I will probably remember for the rest of my life.

Mainland
The second day we saw our colleague John again. He was born on one of the islands and has been a tour guide for many years and he knows everything about the islands and Highland Park. John first took us to see some things on the Island Mainland where the distillery is situated. I will tell you about some of the highlights. 

The first highlight is Hobbister Moor. Hobbister Moor is the place where we cut and dry our heather peat. It is such a beautiful place. All the heather and the different layers of peat you can see there. I’m always amazed when I visit Hobbister Moor. But this time, there was something more to see! Because there was peat drying on the fields. So cool to see all the little stacks of peat. Getting closer you could really see the structure and the roots of the heather. Amazing!

The Yesnaby cliffs were a highlight again just like last time. At these sandstone cliffs you can feel the spirit of the Orkney Islands. The rough winds, the big waves crashing on the rocks and the breathtaking views. Big in contrast just like Highland Park whisky. A wild harmony. 

Distillery visit
After a great lunch, John took us to my absolute favorite place on all the Orkney Islands, The Highland Park distillery! I felt happy and honored to be back. When I’m there it still feels super special that I can call myself a Brand Ambassador for this distillery. It makes me take a moment and realize how happy and honored I am and how much I appreciate my work and my life. The Highland Park distillery has a romantic, fairy-like, robust kind of look and feel which I absolutely love. 
As a start of the tour we got to see a video about Highland Park while enjoying a Highland Park Triskelion whisky followed by a tour of the distillery. We went to the three malt floors first were our men still hand turn about 20% of the barley we use for our whisky. We saw one of the two kilns, where the barley is dried with our aromatic heather peat burning under the barley with a ppm of approximately 40. Then we went to see the Porteus mill and the Mash Tuns. In the Mash Tuns, water is added in three stages, the first two at 79° and the third at 88°. Then it was time to see the washbacks. This is probably the last time I will see the Oregon pine washbacks as they will be replaced by stainless steel next year. There are 12 washbacks. 43,000 liters each where the fermentation takes approximately 60 hours with a minimum of 52 hours. After having looked at the fermentation process it was time to visit the copper stills at the stillhouse. There are 4 stills, 2 washstills with a charge size of 14,600 liters and 2 Spirit Stills with a charge size of 9,000 liters. The forshot runs for approximately half an hour and the heart runs for approximately two hours and forty minutes. The last part of the tour was to visit one of the warehouses where the Highland Park whisky is maturing into the great spirit that it is. There are 23 in total. 19 dunnage and 4 racked. The total capacity is 46,000 casks. After all this we have a total of 2 million L a year. 

​After the tour it was time for a proper Highland Park whisky tasting. And John did something interesting. Normally when I host a Highland Park tasting, I have the following order: 10 Y.O, 12 Y.O., 15 Y.O., and 18 Y.O. But he let us try them in a different order: 10 Y.O., 15 Y.O., 12 Y.O. and 18 Y.O. He said that this order will do the whisky’s more justice and I totally agreed. So if you visit one of my upcoming tastings and you see me present them in this order, you now know why. 

The next morning it was time to leave the Orkney islands again, unfortunately. I enjoyed it so much and can’t wait to go back there again!

A big thanks to my colleagues, to Lee, John, Graham and Charlie from the Highland Park distillery and to Westraak tours. 

If you would like to see more pictures of this trip, please follow me on Instagram as I will post some of the best pictures there.