Highland Park partners with chef Björn Frantzén
Orkney distillery Highland Park has released a 16-year-old single malt that offers a ‘new approach to whisky tasting’.
Titled ‘Between You and I’, the whisky is a collaboration with three-Michelin-starred chef Björn Frantzén.
Instead of traditional tasting notes, drinkers are invited to explore personal memories and emotions inspired by the whisky.
Highland Park invited Frantzén – who is known for his ‘innovative’ approach to flavour – to respond to the whisky by sharing the personal associations that it evoked for him. He found a ‘wide range of tastes, memories and emotions’, reflecting his passion for art and culture and his world travels.
Frantzén’s thoughts range from the flavour-based (“bright, citrusy, orange note”) to music (“a little bit like rock music”) and the sound of an “open fireplace in a winterland forest”. The whisky’s marzipan note brought back a memory of being in his grandmother’s kitchen in Sweden, “doing the Christmas cooking”.
He said: “This whisky is like a conversation between memories, flavours, and places. It brought me back to moments with my grandmother in the kitchen, to tropical beaches, and to the quiet sound of a fire fading in a snowy forest. That’s how layered the experience was.”
Between You and I’s packaging and accompanying campaign feature Frantzén’s inspirations. Each bottle comes in a box customised by the chef, featuring a spray-paint design.
Inside the box is a booklet filled with questions and prompts inviting the owner to experience the whisky in their own way.
Frantzén added: “I used to do graffiti when I was younger. It’s a medium with a lot of confidence and attitude, like the whisky. That’s why the pack is designed using layers of spray paint. I wanted it to feel organic, unpolished. Perfectly imperfect.
“In the design, the burst of warm orange represents the warmth of the fire, while the blue colour and heather below represent the flowing water and the taste of heather peat smoke. The layers of colour over each other echo the layers of the flavour I tasted in the whisky, revealing themselves one by one.
“Taste is a very personal thing – it can evoke so many memories or emotions. That’s what’s so cool about Between You and I. For me, it is a totally new way of tasting whisky. So the question is, what will you taste?”
A first for the brand
The release marks the first time Highland Park has used virgin Swedish oak, with the whisky also aged in Sherry-seasoned European and American oak, and ex-Bourbon casks.
Brand director Paul Condron said: “Between You and I invites people to share their own personal tasting notes and what the whisky evokes for them, from a treasured memory to a favourite song.
“This is a new way of tasting whisky, more personal and emotional than ever. No two people will taste the same thing.
“Thanks to the use of virgin Swedish oak, it’s an exciting new expression of flavour for us, but I’m just as excited about the discussions it might start – because when we share our personal tasting notes, we get to know each other a little bit better.”
The whisky will be available in the UK from today (14 October) from Selfridges, The Whisky Shop, Master of Malt and The Whisky Exchange, with an RRP of £145 (US$192). It has an ABV of 48%.
Highland Park has also collaborated with Frantzén for a global travel retail exclusive called Between You and I: Journeys. The release follows the same approach of eschewing tasting notes, however this time with a 17-year-old single malt.
Between You and I: Journeys is also available from today with an RRP of £155 (US$206).
Earlier this year, Highland Park whisky maker Gordon Motion departed after 27 years, handing over the reins to Marc Watson.
The brand also had an identity refresh to bring it into a ‘new era’.
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