At a recent reception organized by the Scotch Whisky Association to honor NY Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes – yes, he was actually born in Scotland and 
showed up arrayed in a kilt and sporran – I had the opportunity to taste several single malts side by side. This exercise in comparison reminded me of what a truly great whisky is the Highland Park Twelve Year Old. It has such an intensity of flavor – not the punch-you-in-the-head sort of strength one finds in many Islays, but an elegant concentration – that other good drams I tasted beside it just seemed pale and flabby.
