Tastes

Well, this is my first Highland Park. Package and bottle are both beautiful! I read a lot about the excellent 18 year old of older days - so I have bought this newer edition Viking Pride (2019 batch) with quite some expectations. To be honest: I‘m not convinced yet! I don‘t find a lot of character in this whisky. I wasn‘t able to classify it as sweet, grainy or peaty, because I did not find any of these to be predominant. But it is not well balanced either. Bitterness might be the predominant note. 2019 batch: The nose is ok: Some nice sweetness. Some Honey. Barley. No Smoke - not really. Enjoyable. The palate: Here start my problems. Not sweet. Green herbs. Not much fruit. Not peaty. Quite bitter. Astringend. Not fun. Finish: Bitter. Dry. Herbs. I have tried it now on 4 different occasions and I really wanted to like it. But there is no love between us yet. I think that the old HP 18 year old must have been a different formula - according to the good reviews, but these do not match my bottle of Viking Pride. I am looking forward to taste the HP Cask Strength 1st edition, the Twisted Tattoo 16 year old, the Ragnvald and „The Light“ 17 year old - hoping very much to find more pleasure with them... And further: I was able to find an older edition of HP 18 yo without Vikings - the head-to-head comparision will come soon!

I bought the bottle in a big retailor for about 59 US$ - so this was not cheap. Tasted on 3 occasions (neat). Unfortunately, I do not associate neither the nose nor the palate of this spirit with whisky at all. More like a (cheap) pear brandy. Water did not help. I did not enjoy this spirit at all. Maybe it will do some service as a base for a mixer. For the moment, it is engraved in my brain as a reference for a bad whisky. This certainly is not a good ambassador for Japanese whisky. No way I will ever taste it neat again.