Tastes

Although Highland Park 12 year is notably younger tasting than its more expensive brethren, it is still wonderfully complex and an amazing introduction to the brand. It maintains a great peat smoke finish but with a bit of alcohol burn. Sampled from a Glencairn

Sweet, pleasant and brimming with fruit. An absolute dessert whiskey. Smooth and delicious. Can see this pairing with a fine cigar. Sampled from a Glencairn glass.

Top 10 for me easily. Complex, sweet, smoky and smooth. Highland park makes a lot of special, limited selections so having a readily available whiskey this tasty is a real treat. Reminds me of their Westray but with less alcohol burn. Enjoyed from a Glencairn glass.

Glenrothes makers cut is an exceptional whiskey at the price point. Tastes a bit hot, my guess is that it isn't aged very long. A more balanced whiskey than their Bourbon cask which leans heavily to the realm of sweet bourbon. This one is a real treat.

This whiskey tastes young and a bit astringent. Faint fruity flavors lurk in the shadows. An ice ball brought out the wrong flavors. This isn't bad, but its not great. There aren't many gems in the $30 ish price point but I'd have Aberfeldy or Glenmorangie over this. Still, much better than a lot of whiskies in this price point.

This is almost as bad as it gets. Neat, there is almost no taste at first then you get a whallop of burnt plastic and old caramel. When you add ice, it makes the whiskey so much worse. What was once almost tasteless will now assault your senses with a brutal astringency that should only be reserved for self punishment. Yeah, its cheap: but there are much tastier bottles that are just as cheap.

This is a special bottle of whiskey indeed. The smell is a little astringent upon first pour but after sitting in the glass a bit, I got sweet caramel and brown sugar notes. The whiskey is warm from the proof, but it coats the tongue in an almost syrupy, sweet fashion. Besides caramel, there are some spice notes there....nutmeg? At the end of the drink, some peat smoke makes its way in and it goes down warmly. This is a superior whiskey, really one of the best I have ever had.

Extremely peppery. Like a black peppercorn type of astringency. Leaves your tongue feeling oddly tingly. Not good but not the worst thing out there.

Slightly spicy and herbaceous. This is a nice change from sweet bourbons but perhaps not quite at this price point. On ice, there seems to be some rye spice that lingers.

When a buddy of mine who hates ryes told me that he was into this whiskey, I was surprised. When I tasted the whiskey, I was even more surprised. The Rye spice was barely noticeable, only coming out after the whiskey is long gone. Dickel Rye does have an odd tongue numbing astringency with bigger drinks, so just stick to sips. A rye whiskey for people who don't like rye whiskies.