Highland Park Voyage of the Raven

Seems that HP marketing struggled with finding more viking labels and what not, so they went with a raven and packed in as much back story about magical omens and Odins eyes as possible. None of which appears to have any bearing on the liquid other than perhaps a tenuous link to travel on the open seas and an initially travel retail exclusive release. Not sure what to expect going into this, but I am worried about the TRE and NAS bottling… N: Feels a little young and abrasive at first with a plastic-acetone prominent profile that over time turns slightly medicinal and earthy. I would not pick this as a Highland Park at all. There is perhaps a deftest touch of peat but its minor. A dark cherry is about all I take away here as a discrete note. P: OK. Now we are opening up. An oily to creamy fullness delivers a quick one-two punch combo of sherry influence and peat-smoke. Dark cherry again, stewed plum, and mocha and a little backing of leatheriness are accompanied by a soft and balanced herbal peat smoke. There is no earthiness here that the nose suggested and medicinal peat notes are absent, instead the smoke leans towards a beach bonfire. And, when I’m lucky I can dig up some preserved lemon. Much, much more interesting than the nose suggests F: Medium-long. Drying smoke and cherry with a little toffee-cream softness. Is there a little heathery-herbal touch here. The nose is the let down here, it offered me next to nothing. The palate though, and finish both offer a clear insight into the sherry casks in use at HP. Off the back of last nights Dragon Legend, which was supposed to be the balancing act of sherry and smoke, the Raven has defeated the dragon. The dragon wins on the nose, but the overall dram is slightly better executed by the Raven. Not at all bad, but still second last in my current HP exploration. [Pictured here with this drams Viking themed rock a highly evolved igneous rock containing almost exclusively elongate green aegerine and white albite. This chunk of viking homeland is from Sulitjelma, Nordhordland; Norway. Given the use of ravens by viking longboats to identify the presence of nearby land this rock was fitting. Aegerine is a mineral which gets its name from Aegir, the Scandinavian god of the sea] Distiller whisky taste #137 HP Running ranking (mostly for my benefit): 10: 3.75 12: 4 15: 4.25 18: 4.75 25: 4.75 Valknut: 4.25 Valkyrie: 4.25 Dragon Legend: 3.25 Voyage of the Raven: 3.5

Rating: 12/23 If I recall correctly, this is some sort of travel retail exclusive bottling...and that's all I remember about it. Time for tasting. N: Not the fullest, but it has some of that usual Highland Park character to it. Smoke, grass, faint apricot, light minerals with a tad of sea spray. And sulphur. P: On the light side with sweetness and spicy (cinnamon, dry ginger) burn coming out most readily before hints of grass and a little sea spray come in. There isn't a ton of complexity here. Any apricot is pretty faint; isn't mostly muddled with the sweetness. A little vanilla. There's a dry smoky backing that isn't very strong and mixes well with the maritime character. There's definitely less sulphur than in the 12 but also substantially less personality. This shows more alcohol and oil, but I think the additional oil is just because other flavors were filtered out. The spicy burn comes through more too and there's a bigger tartness. More grass and grain show through here. F: Not the boldest of finishes. Sweetness remains along with faint smoke and occasional lightly salty minerals. - Conclusion - This is a fairly boring, inoffensive release. It's certainly not bad, but it's entirely forgettable and not something I would want to drink an entire pour of. It will be in the 10 to 14 range and I think an 11 to 13 is quite likely. I'm inclined to say that with the lack of personality here a 13 is pushing it. My general impression here is that this is young Highland Park made with less sulphur (and other compounds) in it. It's a strategy that makes sense for spirit that is planned to not be aged for long enough to do much edge smoothing. If it weren't for the sulphur, Highland Park 12 (12) would crush this. That sulphur is a big problem though. Side by side with Highland Park Cask Strength Edition 1 with water added (13), this is substantially less complex and interesting, but it also has less sulphur than the Cask Strength (which in turn has a bit less than the 12). I definitely don't feel confident saying that this is better than the Cask Strength. I was briefly looking an 11 to 14, but a side by side with Westland Peated (14) showed that the Westland is substantially better than this. I am still inclined to say that this is better than the Highland Park 12 though.That means I'm looking at a a 12 or 13. Considering all of the back and forth I've done, I think I'll land on a 12, though I almost put a 13.

Highland Park is one of my favorite distilleries, and it belongs to the Edrington group, just as Macallan; this important since it seems they have followed the same marketing and business plan: to release a lot of new expressions, most of them NAS, very well packaged and highly collectible. The real challenge here is actually making good whiskies, but in this case, they accomplished just that. Highland Park Voyage of the Raven tells the story of two ravens, called Huginn y Muninn, who were they eyes and ears of the viking god Odin. It is also about how vikings used ravens when navigating, to find new lands and return home, by just following them. Not only the story is beautiful, the bottle itself is quite nice. Bottled at 41.3%abv, a very dark, tawny color. ON THE NOSE: it is just marvelous. Figs / raisins/ blackberry marmalde WITH A earthy peat in the back, very perfumed. Some red fruit syrup, smells thick. After 2 minutes earthy peat changes into a glue aroma. Then it becomes winey, a chocolate bathed raisins note appear. Raisin note is very accurate; Very,very pleasant. Wow some clean lemon note just appeared out of nowhere after 5 mins.Bitter Coffee beans. This notes are coming one after another, not at the same time, so complex. The notes are very clean: Now it is dusty, like Peat became stronger. Hay. Lemon. After first sip, a sugary arrificial orange aroma note appeared, like cough syrup. Pecans, wow amazingly clean. First time i got this in a whisky. The orange Is getting more natural, than sugary. After a second sip, a melted milk chocolate aroma has been thrown here. It is amazing. Oranges. ON THE PALATE: Starts very dry and woody. Changes into a winey, spicy dram, lots of black pepper, not unpleasant although a little powerful. After 5 seconds in the palate it turns grassy / peaty. Second sip is clearer, it is a little watery, there is a punching peat flavor with pepper, but pleasant. Orange flavor is there but very dim. It is a pleasant dram on the palate but not nearly as complex as it was in the nose. Third sip gave me creamy vanilla notes. AFTERTASTE: is pretty nice. Plain new wood, very dry. Leaves a pleasant yet scorching spiciness on the lips. No fruitiness found after the first sip. Second sip gave me a little, but very pleasant puff of smoke, very dry, but VERY PLEASANT, i loved it. Nice, long lasting. I love the simple, peaty, burnt new wood aftertaste, it is rewarding even if it is not very complex. Overall, this is a wonderful, and not expensive dram. The peat and the sherriness worked very well here and specially on the nose. My score for it is a solid 93 over 100, for a $56 dram, its absolutely a must-have. Skal!