If you were stuck with only one single malt for the rest of your days, you could do a lot worse than Highland Park 12. It just hits that sweet spot between faded sherry and honeyed peat smoke so perfectly that I always wonder why so few other distilleries attempt to fit the niche. For me, there may be more refined single malts, but at the price it’s five stars all the way (and I’d add that the 18 is good but NOT almost 3x better than this, which is how much you’ll probably pay in comparison). The cheesy new bottle and Viking marketing don’t do this whisky justice.