Ha!, I think I"ll go with the Talisker 18! Perception is easy to manipulate by marketing and I agree with you about Macallan. I personally love it but the prices have crossed over into crazy town. Blue Label is another one that I think is junk yet the masses think it's the epitome of Scotch. I've also heard that recent HP 18's are not as good as previous bottlings so I was hesitant to pull the trigger.

Tony, it's so funny you'd write that. I just had this conversation with my brother today, debating which was preferable between the HP18 and the T18. As basically said my qualm with HP is that it's overhyped, like The Macallan. At some point the masses decided anything coming from Orkney was Christ incarnate and that's just that, period. And I just don't agree. I mean I love HP, but I'm sober-minded enough to recognise when there's something of similar flavour profile that's just better. And I think Talisker just does it better, especially at the 18-year expression. All this to say that if I was in your shoes... Talisker 18, hands down.

Can't decide between this and Highland Park 18 for my birthday. I do prefer Talisker 10 to HP12 , but HP 18 is so hyped.

One of my favorites. It's been about 5 months since I had a taste, think I will need to remedy that soon

My personal favorite. Good stuff.