Tastes

This one is hard to find since Johnnie Walker stop making it some years ago. I just had the pleasure to taste it, because a friend gave birth to her newborn child and the husband was celebrating with this old bottle. first of all, it is superior to the actual line of Johnnie walker green label, gold label reserve and platinium label. it just is. i have never had a better 18 year old whisky, i dont know why i dislike whiskies of that particular age. Well, this is pretty good. On the nose you get Honey, orange and peat. very beautiful gentle aroma, sweet and delightful. On the palate is sweet at first with honey notes, but then it turns salty and spicy, with a full oakyness flavor, with a touch of elegant peat. finish is long and made me remind of cough syrup like the one you drink when you are sick. beautiful enormous experience

ok this is fantastic. like the best whisky ever or close to that. very diferent to my other favorite the hibiki harmony, Johnnie Walker XR 21 is beautiful on the nose with a very creamy vanilla note, if you pour a drop on your hand it will smell like the seed from a peach and if you let it sit for a couple of minutes you'll also get a tiny orange or some other citrus fruit note. on the palate you get a very spicy almost hot sensation, and the finish is medium with a mild smoke sensation. this is a very complex and beautiful whisky. by far the best i had so far

A very solid whisky. Is a good dram, elegant, perfumed. On the nose i got gentle, very gentle vanilla and peat, almost as it is hidding but you can perceive it. You can get some spices on the nose, and maybe toffee. On the palate is hot, full bodied, not that complex, spicy but hot overall, oakiness is present, also cereal (which i first thought was banana) and the finish is strong but medium with dark chocolate all over it. I expected for it to be more complex, but overall is an elegant whisky, superior to Old Parr superior and chivas 18. I am fairly dissapointed with 18 year old whiskies because there are younger whiskies out there that are better.

I think this is one of the most interesting drams i have ever tasted. It is not necessarily the best whisky, but it is amazing. Bottled at 45.9% abv with a deep gold color. Remember i once told you that Highland Park has the best marketing in their bottles? This is no exception. The name "Valkyrie" comes from nordic "angels" that comb the battlefields to pick up the best dead warriors and let them enter the Viking heaven called "Valhalla". How do you like that story? Well, the dram is a battlefield also. The nose is simply overwhelming, with an inmense peaty note, like a fireplace or a barbecue, roasted meat nose appear, some balsamic oil and salt. Spectacular. On the palate is very oily, i think is a young whisky but the flavor is intense. Lots of spices: pepper, liquorice, a bitter note, ashes, hard blocks of salt, full mouth sensation. The finish is very long, it burns your insides, ashes, bonfire, gunpowder. Amazing. Overall i give this dram a 99/100 and the point deduction comes from the burn sensation in the aftertaste letting me know this whisky is young, i wonder what would happen with a little more maturation. Amazing. Slainte!

Amazing dram. It restored my faith on this distillery a little lost after the warrior series "harald" tasting. I believe this dram is one of the best balanced whiskies ever. Simply outstanding. Bottled at 43%abv, with a deep copper color, spectacular thick legs on the glencairn. On the nose is wonderful, Cream, Peat, Bread, Cake, Sherry; citrus notes like Prune peel, Orange peel and Lemon peel. Perfumed caramel, mostly Sweet aroma, Super elegant, Marzipan; Made me think as a dalmore with peat, Complex and great. After a while i also got fine Chocolate. On the palate, tobbacco is the main note as any other highland park. Oranges, balanced spicyness, mostly clove. Amazingly balanced, overall taste is dry with some bitterness but pleasant. Finish is medium-long, with bonfire peat and clove. My score for this baby is 95 over 100. Very very recommended, this is my new highland park choice.

Believe the hype. This is a great single malt Whisky. First of all, its marketing is marvelous. i just love it. there is a whole experience around it, making it not a simple beverage, but also a story to tell. If you visit their website you'll find its history there, filled with smugglers myth. Then i strongly recommend you'll sign into their "inner circle" where your photo is suposedly posted in a wall in their destillery. The most beautiful part is that i signed in about two months ago and i received yesterday a pin with the brands logo on my mail box, HERE IN ECUADOR where the post office is very "inexistent". Well, now lets rate this baby. On the nose is very fruity and pleasant. THE BOX SAYS THERE IS PEAT ON IT, i did not find it. On the nose you will find a very strong prune aroma, that fills your nose. there is also a citrus aroma, oranges and lemon, and there is cream of some kind, like vanilla cream. On the palate the real magic appears. very complex VERY VERY BALANCED. Everything happens at the same time, hotness, spicyness, sweetness, feeling like medium bodied but sometimes full bodied, a lot of old wood but very pleasant, prunes and oakyness, the more you taste it the sweeter it gets. The finish is absolutely astonishing, very long, the longest finish on a whisky i have tasted so far, full of oakyness and almonds. spices are also present, very pleasant, very well done. I just loved it. I want to share it with friends but i also dont want to do it since getting my hands on this bottle is very hard on Ecuador. totally recommended. GET YOUR HANDS ON IT. (i felt dark chocolate too, but i am not 100% sure there so i leave this under parenthesis). Skal!

I just realized i have never rated this whisky in barreled, i simply love this monster, it is one of my favorites and i am writing this review out of my memory. 43%abv, burnished gold. On the nose is so complex. It chanhes everytime you enter into the glencairn. Orange jam, floral notes, kiwi, lemon, chocolate, creme brulee. On the palate is full of oak, oranges, dark chocolate and it leaves you a full mouth sensation that starts in your tongue and starts building up till it reaches the top of your mouth. I have drink it enough to low its original score (it was 100) to 97, but it is one of my all time favorites. Slainte!

Is this the best dram i have drank on 2018?, so far it is. Let me start saying that i had this sample for a long time waiting for a special time and i have decided that my whisky No. 300 is going to be the world's famous Hibiki 21yo, but i cant have that one without going on the 17yo first, so this, my whisky No. 299 is the also world's famous Hibiki 17yo. Easily one of the best blended whiskies i have ever had. Bottled at 43%abv, deep gold color. Lets start with its main feature: it is super complex. On the nose, smells wonderful: Dark dried cake, wedding cake, Red fruits, very Winey, Berries; Impalpable sugar, cake custard cream. Wonderfully complex so sweet, Must have been seasoned in sherry casks due to its profile on the nose. After some minutes, red apple juice and Creme brulee. The empty glencairn leaves notes of Sweet Quince (in Ecuador we call it membrillo dulce, google it) and blackberry jam. It is a dessert. On the palate it is imperative to have the more quantity of sips as possible since it changes and changes with every sip. First sip (without having anything to eat or drink in a couple hours) (yes, i prepared myself for this) which is suppossed to be harsher than the rest of the sips, is Hot, Spicy, Oaky, Sugary but exceptionally smooth. The rest of the sips is where everything goes wild. Orange, Caramel, Cough syrup. For a hot/oaky dram it is very pleasant. Super delicious sensation, Ashes are also there, Hints of smoke, Hints of brown sugar; Mostly oaky but very refined. Bitter sherry, Almonds and also pepper. Incredibly complex as you can see. Aftertaste has a ginger mixed with sugar syrup note, finish is very very long, mouth-full, powerful but very lovely. Mouth watering. Spicy delight behind teeth. You wish this was food. You wish you could eat this dram rather to drink it. It is simply amazing. Overall, 100 over 100 is the only score i can give it, having a 25/25 on the nose, palate, finish and balance. KANPAI! (slaintè in japanese)

Is this my graduation day? This is not a dram, this is a "dream". For my 300th whisky review i decided (like 20 whiskies ago) to finally taste the world most awarded blended whisky ever, the Japanese Hibiki 21yo, and it was everything it was supposed to be, the best blended whisky ever made. Very similar to my other favorite blended whisky, the Extinct Johnnie Walker Premier (also made only for Japan). On the nose it is absolutely spectacular. The end of the world in the nose. Paradise. Notes i got on the nose: Amontillado sherry, Fresh orange jam, Coffee; Couple of minutes later: tiramisu, Citric note, orange note, Hay; So complex. Sugar syrup notes hidden in the back. Very fresh aroma, Interior of prunes, Orange peel with dark chocolate; Floral notes. Viscocity is so high that i have written all this and still they havent reached the base of the dram. The aroma is strong. Wonderful. Rose stem, Mostly coffee notes, absolutely Adictive. After the first sip maple honey appears on the nose as well as créme caramel. More and more caramel on the nose. Slight Vanilla. All that. In the nose. The most complex nose ever. Ever. For obvious reasons the palate wasn't going to match the super super super complexity on the nose. Still it is a marvelous dram. Wonderful on the palate. It is amazingly balanced, the right amount of spicyness, with the right amount of oak, with the right amount of sweetness all happening at the same time. Incredibly easy to drink and pleasant. Sherry, Clove, Bitter coffee beans, Dark chocolate, Almonds and butterscotch. Vanilla. After the third sip: caramel and oregano. Finish is a mixture of ginger and herbal notes in such a pleasant way that you feel rewarded. Thick créme caramel. I did left one micro sip to taste it with water. One drop later, nose dilutes to milk powder with lemon peel. Becomes super herbal on the palate, almost medicinal, exactly like drinking magnesium chloride. No grain was felt. The score, easy to guess: 100 over 100. It might be 200 easily. Something i must tell you, i am not sure that this one has beaten my all time favorite the Glenmorangie Signet, but it is surely the only one that has stood up to it. I would definitively pay (if i had the money lol) the $550 it costs, and i will save it to drink a dram in special occasions.

Believe the hype about this one. It is an amazing dram, specially for the price. Matured 10 years in oak casks, and 2 years in oporto casks (portugal) it is what you expect to be from a port finish. 46%abv, with a mahogany color. On the nose it is a port. Only seagulls are missing. Salt, beach, peat, prunes with salt, sherry and caramel are the main notes on the nose. On the palate is delicious and a little complex. Oranges, mild hotness, pleasant, not very spicy, salt, caramel, fungi, with a beautiful finish, smoke comes out from your nose, like having a cigarrette. The aftertaste is long and interesting, makes your mouth sleep like the dentist local anesthesia. Amazing. The most incredible part: it cost 39 dollars, a full 700ml bottle. I give this baby a solid 97 over 100 and i truly recommend this dram. Slaintè!