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.