Highland Park Valkyrie

At a business dinner this evening, I noticed this at the bar. I had to wonder---was this good enough to carry forward the HP brand, or would it simply exemplify their pushing more NAS with fancy Viking stories in lieu of good quality aged versions? At $17 / ounce, I thought it was outrageously priced (and we can't expense in alcohol despite it being a business dinner). Nose is smoked orchard fruits like apples and peaches. Palette---toffee, spice, some salinity and a wrapper of peat. It can't hold a candle against the 18, and it pales in comparison to even the 12. This is young. I'm glad I tried it out first, not sure I'd buy a bottle, at least when I can do better with the 12. On a side note, I did notice this had a screw on cork. The liquid was simply "meh", but I have to admit, pretty fancy bottling and corking. Unfortunately, I'm not iin favor of replacing good quality liquid for fancy bottles and cork tops.