Highland Park Valknut

Tire fire on the nose. Very similar to HP 12 just more earthy and smoke

The overall experience feels VERY formulaic. Not sure how else to put it. It looked, smelled and tasted like someone went in the lab to “construct” a Highland Park whiskey using some supposedly “true & tested” formula. As in... (and here please imagine a John or Jane Doe in a lab coat)... take equal parts single malt distillate, add x parts heather peat, then quarter parts sherry + y liters of water. Then shake and let sit for z hours. Then more purified water, and add 1/one millionth parts iodine + cold tar = Highland Park whiskey. Don’t know the exact formula but you get the point. Simply put, this pour has NO soul. I didn’t know there’ll come a day when I would describe whiskey in such an esoteric way but here we are. Sure it tastes like whiskey. Sure you can pick up some peat. And sure, you can feel the sherry. Then what? I guess HP was counting on the adage that says “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck”. Except it’s not. More like a plastic facsimile. Luuuucy! Ahem, I mean Hiiigghlaand Paaaark! You got some xplaining to do! Glad I got this on a close out sale for less than $35. I guess that’s why it was discounted. Skip this one. You should have no FOMO on this with confidence 1.25 - 1.5 ⭐️ Sláinte PoD!