Highland Park Freya

Tout un scotch, ce Freya! Des fleurs blanches, du sel, des biscuits sec, du citron et du pamplemousse, des huîtres avec une mignonette et un verre de vin blanc, des poires et des bananes, puis une fumée tourbée qui surplombe le tout. Hyper raffiné, soyeux, complexe et abouti. Major league stuff.

Freya, the goddess of love, lust and fertility, is also portrayed as a deity of war, since she has her own version of Valhalla, where half of the fallen viking warriors go when they die in battle. Freya is also the third expression of Highland Park's "Valhalla Collection", a 15yo whisky that promises the lust, love and war in a glass. Bottled at 51.2%abv, it comes with the now classic viking ship. On the nose, it is very good, although a little dim. Starts with green apple juice and pears, you almost feel that you have poured a Glenfiddich 12yo at the first aroma. Heather, stewed apples, white wine and a nice maritime note. After some sips, it changed into a wet vanilla cake, pineapple and fruity gas water. On the palate it is sheer perfection. Fruit punch, fruit salad and then a powerful spice flavor of ginger and clove. It is delicious. Macerated fruits. It has a cold feeling. Wine sangria fruits. Amazing. Aftertaste was the peaty part. Herbal, a warrior peat, a lip and tongue scorching feeling in a good way. Maritime with ginger notes, sider. Overall, this one accomplishes the mision. It offered a lusty, lovely dram, which traduces into the great, clean fruitiness to it; and it also offered me some war notes, that are heavily found on the finish: pleasantly spicy, peaty and scorching. The nose is where it lost some points, but this is a memorable single malt. My score for it is 96 over 100.

Full of flavoring in aroma for a 15-year Scotch, with bright vanilla and mildly tart fruity aftertaste.

I finally get to try this! Highland Park is my favorite and Freya is no exception. I have a preference for the more heavily sherried like Odin but this might just be the best Bourbon aged whisky out there. Tropical fruit and light peat and it goes down surprisingly well considering the cask strength. 95