Over the past two years, Highland Park has released three special bottlings to commemorate the dramatic Nordic history of the Orkney Islands, where the distillery is situated: Earl Magnus, Saint Magnus and Earl Hakon.

The current bottling, which is exclusive to Duty Free, commemorates Leif Eriksson the Norse warrior and navigator who is credited with being the first European to set foot on the American Continent in 1003 - nearly five hundred years before Columbus.

His father, Erik the Red, was also a famous explorer and the first Norseman to establish a colony in Greenland. The Icelandic sagas tell how, following a feud (during which he killed several men), Erik was banished from Iceland for three years. In AD 982 he sailed north and spent his exile exploring what, on his return home, he called ‘Greenland' on the basis that "people would be more attracted to go there if it had a favourable name". This is possibly the earliest example of marketing hyperbole, although we must remember that it was at the start of what climatologists call the ‘Medieval Warm Period', and before the ‘Little Ice Age', which began around 1550.

Erik's description worked, however, and around 5,000 settler-farmers emigrated to Greenland, with Erik as their ‘Paramount Chief'. His son Leif was born about AD 970. While on a visit to Norway, he met a Norse explorer and sea captain, Bjarni Herjolfsson, who reported that on a voyage to Greenland some years previously he had been blown far to the west, where he had seen a land "covered with mountains and trees". Leif bought Bjarni's long-ship and recruited a crew of thirty-five to go in search of this New World.

The carton of the Highland Park Leif Eriksson depicts his voyage. Having sailed up the west coast of Greenland, he turned towards the setting sun and made a landfall on a coast covered with flat rocks. This he named Helluland (‘Land of Flat Stones'), which it is reckoned was Baffin Island. From there he sailed south until he came to a flat and wooded country, with white beaches, which he named Markland (‘Wood-Land') - probably present-day Labrador.

The intrepid voyagers pressed on south, landing at a place which Leif named Vinland (‘Wine-Land', or perhaps ‘Meadow-Land'), abundant with wild grapes and salmon, with a mild climate and green grass all year round. Here they built a small settlement, which they named Leifsbudir, meaning ‘Leif's storage houses'. In 1960, a Viking long-house was discovered at a place called L'Anse aux Meadows, on the northern tip of Newfoundland, and it is generally accepted that this was the site of Leifsbudir. This has been restored as a visitor attraction.

Leif and his crew settled in for the winter and returned safely to Greenland the following spring with a cargo of timber. The Greenlander Saga reports that on the voyage home they rescued an Icelandic ship in distress, saved its crew and salvaged its cargo - on account of which Leif was afterwards called ‘Leif the Lucky', not because he had navigated beyond the known world and landed in North America, but because he got to keep the cargo!

Some time later, 160 Greenlanders, including sixteen women, settled at Leifsbudir under the leadership of Thorfinn Karlsefni, who was the first European to come into contact with the local inhabitants, called Skraelings by the Norse. His son, named Snorri Thorfinnson, is believed to be the first child of European descent born in the Americas.

Maybe one day he will be remembered by a special bottling of Highland Park?

Tasting Notes: Viking gold, with amber lights. A gentle nose, with vanilla sponge and baked apples - Eve's Pudding? - a hint of planed oak and a trace of spice, and behind these a scent of the sea: salt breeze and sweet seaweed, warm sand and sea-tangle; opens up gradually, to become more marmalade-like.Unreduced, the taste starts sweet, with some dry orange zest among the dusty oak notes lending a sharp, fresh edge. Drinks well, straight.

With a splash of water, the nose becomes fruitier (pear drops, plums) and deeper (chocolate wafer biscuits) and gains a thread of smoke - a Highland Park signature. The taste is now sweeter and less zesty, but still with a memory of the sea - a very light saltiness, and some will recognise sweet Japanese seaweed - and that tell-tale whiff of smoke, particularly in the aftertaste.

Occasion: Looking out over the sea.

Leif Eriksson is a good introduction to Highland Park's much-loved (and unique) flavour profile. Very accessible: a rewarding, general-purpose malt.