Highland Park Odin

After spending a long, Christmas Day at work so that my co-workers with small children could spend the holiday at home with them, I'm finally able to unwind and reward myself with a nicer bottle from my collection. Why not open the finale of Highland Park's Valhalla collection: Odin. The Norse God that was known as the "All-Father" to Thor. This Odin is a 16 year old, single malt that spent its entire life in first fill and refilled Sherry casks. It's also cask strength and comes in at an impressive 111.6 proof. As part of its unique packaging it comes with a black, wooden display case in the shape of old, Viking sailing ships. This bottle is also painted solid black with what appears to be painted labels instead of the typical vinyl label. Pretty cool, albeit unnecessary. The nose is very inviting: sweet vanilla and honey, with a slight hint of citrus peel while rounding out with the well balanced peat smoke found in most Highland Park offerings. On the palate, it has a very prominent sweetness that's rushed away by the heavy peppery, cinnamon oak and high ABV. It takes your breath if you aren't expecting it. There's a good bit of complexity in the finish that makes it really fantastic: sherry, vanilla, cinnamon, oak and citrus peel and peat smoke. All those flavors seem to wrangle your tongue simultaneously making it a bit of a chore to analyze this without cooling it off with a bit of water. Overall, though, if you enjoy Highland Park whisky you'll surely be delighted by this rare bottle. It's perfect for sitting down and giving your palate a challenging workout. I believe this bottle ran around or slightly above $300 and it's hard to justify that when you know the HP 18 is less than half that and oh so good. If I take the rarity aspect out of it and judge it on its merits alone it's a 4.25-4.5 star offering. The price and difficulty of locating it drops it a bit for me to a solid 4 star whisky. Happy Holidays and cheers, friends. Bring on 2017!