Released in 2009, Earl Magnus was the first in Highland Park's Magnus trilogy, a series honouring Earl Magnus Erlendsson, the twelfth-century Orkney earl whose murder at the hands of his cousin led to his canonisation and the eventual building of St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, the cathedral that still dominates the town in which Highland Park sits.
The bottling was matured for 15 years in a combination of sherry-seasoned European and American oak casks and presented at a cask strength of 52.6% ABV without chill filtration. Only 5,976 bottles were produced, and the release sold out rapidly.
The nose opens on heather honey, candied orange, vanilla and dried apricot, with the soft aromatic peat smoke that Highland Park draws from its Hobbister Moor cuttings. The European oak component shows itself in a hint of dried fig and clove.
On the palate it is full and warming, with honeyed malt, orange marmalade, clove, dark chocolate and a saline smoky edge. At cask strength the spirit retains its house balance: the sweetness, smoke and salinity all in conversation rather than competition.
The finish is long, honeyed and smoky, with oak spice and dried fruit. Earl Magnus set the template for the trilogy that followed (Saint Magnus and Earl Haakon) and remains a benchmark for Highland Park's limited cask strength releases of the late 2000s.
