Highland Park and Björn Frantzén Won’t Tell You How It Tastes

We’ve been over-describing whisky for a while now. Somewhere between “sun-warmed sultanas” and “a shy curl of maritime smoke,” the ritual became more about polite agreement over tasting notesTasting NotesA description of the aromas, flavors, and finish of a wine, spirit, or other fine product, recorded by experts or enthusiasts. Tasting notes help buyers choose bottles and appreciate subtleGo to Tasting Notes Glossary. A couple of swirls and nods, and then an insistence on the detection of quince.

Highland Park, the Orkney distillery founded in 1798 by church beadle and part-time smuggler Magnus “Mansie” Eunson, has decided to interrupt that script. Its latest 16 Year Old single maltSingle MaltA whisky made at a single distillery from malted barley, typically distilled in pot stills and aged in oak. Single malts display distinct regional character and style, from smoky IslayGo to Single Malt Glossary, “Between You and I,” produced in collaboration with chef Björn Frantzén, funny enough, actually declines to tell you what you are meant to taste.

Frantzén is hardly a token collaborator. The Swedish chef is the only chef in the world holding three separate three-Michelin-starred restaurants—Frantzén in Stockholm, Zén in Singapore, and FZN in Dubai—while overseeing a global portfolio across six countries. A former professional footballer, he pioneered “Nordic-kaisekiKaisekiA traditional multi-course Japanese dining experience, built around seasonal ingredients, artistic presentation, and precise technique. Regarded as the pinnacle of Japanese haute cuisine, kaiseki offers a refined, quiet, contemplative meal,Go to Kaiseki Glossary,” marrying Nordic ingredients with Japanese culinary principles.

The chef is the first to encounter the whisky—matured for 16 years in virgin Swedish oak (a first for the house), sherry-seasoned European and American oak, and ex-BourbonBourbonAn American whiskey made from at least fifty-one percent corn and aged in new charred oak barrels, noted for sweet notes of caramel, vanilla, and spice. Rare, limited bottlings haveGo to Bourbon Glossary casks—and rather than reduce it to flavor shorthand, he responded with associations. “This whisky is like a conversation between memories, flavors, and places,” he says. “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 layered quality isn’t accidental. The Swedish oak lends structure and spice while the sherry casks contribute depth and sweetness. Highland Park’s signature smoky heather-infused peat still threads through. It is complex, yes, but not in the showy, high-decibel kind of way we’ve been used to.

For Frantzén, complexity translates into narrative. A bright citrus note became, in his mind, the sharp perfume of orange zest released into kitchen air. The so-called marzipan sweetness is said to have transported him to Christmas cooking with his grandmother in Sweden. “The smell of almonds, the cold outside, and the cosiness inside. Pure nostalgia.” A hint of crème brûlée conjured “that split second of crunch before the custard melts.” Even a trace of tonka bean on the nose suggested palm trees and West Indian beaches.

Most interesting, perhaps, is his musical analogy of the new release. “For me, ‘Between You and I’ tasted a little bit like rock music. Not digital, but analogue, handcrafted… People playing instruments and being at the peak of their craft.” It’s quite the description, offering a reminder that taste rarely confines itself to the tongue.

The packaging, too, emphasizes this rebellion against being tidy. The colorful chef, who once dabbled in graffiti himself, designed the presentation box with layered spray paint, evidenced by those warm bursts of orange for firelight, cool blues and heather tones for water and peat. “It’s a medium with a lot of confidence and attitude, like the whisky,” he explains. “I wanted it to feel organic, unpolished. Perfectly imperfect.” This decommitment to convention, we may consider it a gentle challenge to the orthodoxy of connoisseurship in a way.

For a house whose 18-Year-Old has been called “Best Spirit in the World” more than once, Highland Park has little to prove in technical terms, really. What “Between You and I” suggests instead is that this whisky is meticulously constructed (after all, its oak program alone signals innovation), wherein the experience it proposes is just a little bit more personal.

“No two people will taste the same thing,” Frantzén says. “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 deceptively simple provocation indeed. How refreshing.

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