Highland Park Svein

A mixture of smoke and sweetness. Not overpowering.

Reviewing another in the Highland Park Warrior Series. Svein is the first of the six in the travel retail exclusive line. Bottled at 40% ABV and is chill filtered and, like all HPs, this is natural color, amber gold. This is the third one I’ve reviewed, the others being Harald and Einar. The nose has big time citrus notes of lemon, orange and a little grapefruit. Heather honey and heather peat. Malty, a bit of an alcohol nip even at 40%. Oak, barley sugar, toffee and butterscotch. Pecans, hazelnut with a pinch of salt and a whiff of black tea. Slightly smoky, like a campfire from 2 campsites away. A thread of savory sherry running throughout, as well as some chocolate and creamy vanilla. The palate has a semisweet arrival with barley sugar, honey and lots of toffee. A little sherry sweetness, but also some bitterness as well to help balance things out. Tropical fruits of tangerines, pineapple, coconut and mango. Chocolate covered almonds, oak, a touch earthy, light peat but no smoke until you let it sit a good long while. A fairly light bodied mouthfeel that is creamy and tongue coating. The finish is medium length with tropical fruits, light peat and light sherry. This is a good value scotch. I purchased this 1L bottle at auction for $45. I gifted it to @LeeEvolved for Christmas and he was gracious enough to send me a sample. That price and size for a HP is a good deal, plus this stuff is fairly tasty. It’s not going to punch you in the face with intense flavors, but it’s very drinkable. I could see this working well with a twist of orange peel and a dash of bitters over ice. 3.25 Cheers

I figured that it was finally time to review my Christmas gift from my buddy @Generously_Paul. He picked this bottle out for me during the last auction at SWA and gave it to me a few weeks before the holiday. I believe he ended up winning it for 40£ and after fees and shipping he probably had $65-70 in it. What an excellent gift- thanks again, my friend. This bottle was part of the HP Warrior Series, which was an NAS set released back in 2017, IIRC. There are 6 bottles ranging in price from $40 to over $1000. The Svein was bottled at 40% and spent its entire life in ex-American sherry casks. I’m pretty sure it’s chill filtered, but I don’t think there was coloring added. The appearance was a rich gold and it made heavy, oily drops in the tasting glass- good evidence there was lots of water used to dilute it to 40%. The nose was dominated early on with honey and light citrus. There’s almost no smoke in play here, a slight earthy peat can be coerced with time and lots of turbulence induced in the glass. Some caramel and toffee rounded things out. No heat, no ABV notes though. No surprise. The palate is richly sherried- I’m sure a good portion of this whisky had to matured in first-fill casks to impart this much sherry at this low of an ABV. The lack of smoke is again perplexing, and there’s a full oil slick on the tongue after even the tiniest of sips. The sherry is nice but it’s overly weak on power and peat- which isn’t something I’d expect from Highland Park. It’s odd, but I gotta say this bottle is crushable- and for $50 for a 1L size there’s great value added with that aspect. The finale is short to medium (medium if you’re crushing it with 3-4oz pours lol). There is some light oak notes and a grape sweetness that I didn’t pick up initially. Ultimately it ends up drier than I expected but that’s fine when you wanna power through larger pours/a larger bottle. Needless to say, I killed this bottle in just over 3 weeks (Note: I almost always pour 10-14oz of every bottle I open into samples for friends or pours for my long term sample collection- so I didn’t kill a liter by myself in that short of a period). Overall, this is what it was probably meant to be- something a casual drinker can crush and not be overwhelmed by any one aspect. It’s for the masses and it works well- especially if you factor in price point. Grab a bottle if you still see them sitting on a shelf or get a pour at a bar for $4-5 and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. You can’t really go wrong here. 3-3.25 stars for the liquid, with a bump for value pricing. Cheers.

A slightly sweet note in the aroma. Has a rather strong tast with an alkoholic sting to it, a bit of smokiness to it and overall nice. The aftertaste is really full and smokey