Highland Park’s second Between You and I release is a 17-year-old single malt Scotch whisky built entirely around an artist’s childhood in Egypt. Remarkably, the artist tasted the finished spirit before she ever met the man who crafted it.
Highland Park Master Whisky Maker Marc Watson received a creative brief detailing the background and artistic universe of New York-based multidisciplinary artist Laila Gohar. Renowned globally for her boundary-pushing culinary installations—ranging from architectural butter sculptures and towering seafood displays to tablescapes that function as high art exhibitions—Gohar’s work routinely merges food with tactile design. Armed only with a written description of her life and aesthetic, Watson scoured more than 80 aging casks at the Orkney distillery to isolate a flavor profile that would resonate as home for someone whose journey spanned continents.
"I actually didn’t meet Marc until after he created the whisky," Gohar reflects. "He interpreted my background and Egyptian heritage in his own way. When I tasted it, I immediately thought of the Gayer-Anderson Museum in Cairo, where I spent a lot of time as a child."
That initial sip transported her back to a historic building she knew intimately during her youth. Rather than serving merely as a pleasant reminder, that visceral reaction became the raw material for an expansive creative collaboration.
Crafting a 17-Year-Old Single Malt Across Continents
The resulting spirit is Between You and I, by Laila Gohar, marking the second edition in Highland Park’s ongoing collaborative series that pairs its historic whisky-making traditions with visionary creators from the worlds of food, art, and fashion.
Distilled and matured in Scotland, the 17-year-old single malt spent 11 years resting quietly in refill casks before receiving a finishing period in unseasoned American oak. This strategic secondary maturation coaxes vibrant notes of orange blossom, rich leather, and warming culinary spices to the forefront, layering them seamlessly over the distillery’s signature subtle peat smoke. The expression made its commercial debut on September 24, retailing at $160 per bottle, with Gohar celebrating the launch by hosting an intimate dinner at her Tribeca apartment.
Her introduction to the liquid, however, was a solitary and contemplative experience. "I tasted it on my own at home and wrote down whatever came to mind without overthinking it," she explains. "I wasn’t trying to identify traditional tasting notes. The flavors immediately became starting points for memories and images, some familiar and some completely unexpected."
Those unfiltered impressions quickly evolved into distinct vignettes. The rich leather note evoked ancient artifacts housed within a Cairo museum; the delicate essence of orange blossom conjured visions of a sun-drenched courtyard in Andalusia; and sweet undertones of vanilla suggested the sloping sides of a tropical volcano under a nocturnal sky. These three evocative scenes now vividly adorn the outer packaging and are expanded upon within a dedicated booklet tucked inside each box.
Redefining Tasting Notes Through Prose and Imagination
In a departure from traditional Scotch whisky marketing, the standard industry tasting notes have been replaced entirely by Gohar’s original prose. Inside each package sits a booklet containing short vignettes written by the artist, with each text corresponding to a specific sensory scene inspired by the liquid.
"Flavor can take each person somewhere completely different, which is what I wanted the prose to capture," Gohar notes. By providing a literary starting point rather than a rigid flavor profile, she intentionally leaves the final destination up to the individual drinker.
Gohar typically constructs physical objects herself and presents them directly to an audience. For this project, however, the object arrived fully formed, forcing her to pivot and treat the finished whisky as a piece of raw creative material. "I approached the whisky the way I would any other material or ingredient, with curiosity and imagination," she says. "It was finished when it came to me, but that was really just the beginning of the conversation." The whisky entered the process on one end, and a collection of evocative imagery and short texts emerged on the other.
The surreal visual illustrations accompanying the release were born from a deeply collaborative back-and-forth with artist Silja Goetz. "Working with Silja is very collaborative," Gohar explains. "We played off each other’s ideas and used my memories and associations with the whisky as a starting point, rather than trying to literally illustrate a flavor. We wanted it to feel colorful, surreal, and a little mysterious, while still leaving enough space for your own imagination." The resulting artwork hints gently at memory without ever pinning a single narrative down.
Permanence Versus Ephemerality in Art and Drink
Because much of Gohar’s professional portfolio centers on ephemeral culinary installations that vanish by the end of an evening, creating a permanent physical product bearing her name represented a significant departure.
"The permanence is actually quite special to me because so much of my work is ephemeral," Gohar observes. "Even though the bottle remains, the experience of drinking it changes depending on who is drinking it, where they are, and what it brings to mind. I like that the object can last while the experience around it keeps changing." The bottle remains static on a shelf, while the human experience surrounding it continues to evolve.
The geographical distance between Orkney and Cairo spans thousands of miles, bridging two entirely distinct cultural landscapes. Highland Park has been crafting single malt whisky on the windswept Orkney Islands since 1798, maintaining an unbroken tradition of craftsmanship for more than two centuries. That steadfast continuity presented a unique challenge and opportunity for Watson.
"I love that whisky has such a strong sense of place, is made in the same place, with the same care, for so many years," Gohar says. "Marc took that history and tradition and interpreted my own background through it." Through this single bottling, a heritage built over two centuries in the far north of Scotland was thoughtfully redirected toward the warmth of an Egyptian childhood.
Marking the release at her own home in Tribeca felt structurally and emotionally appropriate for the artist. "Hosting it at home made the evening feel personal, which felt right," she says. "I wanted the table to feel generous and inviting, with the whisky naturally part of the experience rather than something overly presented. For me, the best tables are the ones that make people want to stay, taste, and talk." On that evening, the whisky functioned simply as another engaging guest at the table.
Looking forward, Gohar views the collaboration as a stepping stone into uncharted creative territory. "I’m interested in how far you can take food beyond the act of eating it," she notes. "Flavor, memory, and imagination can exist without necessarily needing a plate or an object to contain them. This project made me think more about that space between something you taste and something you imagine, and I’d like to keep exploring it."
Marc Watson read a brief and constructed a flavor profile from decades-old casks. Laila Gohar tasted it and rediscovered a museum, a courtyard, and a volcanic slope. True to the title of the release, the ongoing conversation happens entirely at the table, unfolding between the drinker and whatever memories rise from the glass, beginning anew each time the cork is drawn.
