Einar was the second expression released in Highland Park's Warrior series, a travel retail exclusive line launched in 2013. The series drew on Orkney's Norse past and named each bottling after a figure from the islands' Viking history. Einar is bottled at 40% ABV with no age statement, and sits at the gentler, more easy-drinking end of the range.
Highland Park has distilled on its site above Kirkwall since 1798, making it one of Scotland's older continuously operating distilleries. It is also one of the few to retain its own floor maltings, producing roughly a fifth of its malt in-house and peating it with heathery Hobbister Moor peat. That peat gives Highland Park its characteristic aromatic rather than medicinal smoke, and in Einar the treatment is particularly light.
The Warrior releases were controversial when they appeared, partly because of the removal of age statements and partly because they were initially locked away behind duty-free counters. Einar drew the most criticism for its 40% strength, which some felt stripped too much body from the spirit. Taken on its own terms, however, it is a perfectly pleasant introductory dram — soft, fruity, lightly smoked — aimed squarely at the traveller looking for something approachable rather than the collector seeking depth.
It is not the expression on which to judge Highland Park. For that, the 12 or 18-year-olds remain the benchmarks. But as a gentle entry point into the house style, Einar does its job, and its bottle — like the rest of the series — is one of the more handsomely designed in recent memory.
