Highland Park released their Warrior Series of travel retail exclusive single malts a few years back. There were 6 in all, each named after a famous Viking warrior or ruler. 4 of them were very reasonable priced, the other 2 not so much. I reviewed #2, Einar, a while back and remember it being pretty good so I picked up #3, Harald. Each one in the series uses a different proportion of American and European oak as well as first and refill casks. This one is 50/50 first/refill casks and roughly 50/50 American/European oak. Bottled at 40% ABV and is chill filtered and a natural golden color. The first few pours from the bottle were fairly boring in the nose with not much going on. Some weak notes of lemon, honey and creamy vanilla with some light peat smoke. Sawdust, cigarette ashes. After the bottle oxidized however, things really improved. Sherry notes, toffee, caramel and some pecans. Orchard fruits of peaches, apples, pears. Cherry blossoms and sandalwood at times which gave it a Japanese feel. What came next was a bit of a surprise, an explosion of berry flavors. Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries. Next came chocolate and lots of fudge. Hazelnut, walnuts and more caramel with a hint of coffee. Grassy at times. Things kept changing around on me and no real clarity came as to what kind of whisky this was trying to be. Mostly it was good though. The palate went through the same changes. Fairly light at first, vanilla and lemon citrus. A dry sooty peat and a bit tannic. After enough time and air in the bottle things really improved. It became quite fruity with pineapple, mango, papaya, apricots and apples. Malty, barley sugar, ginger and clove. Puffs of smoke, fudge, dried strawberries and honey. A light bodied mouthfeel that is thin but creamy, a bit dry. The finish was medium length, tannic, light sherry, nutty, strawberries, apple skins and dry. I have to say that at first this was a pretty poor example of a Highland Park. Not much of anything going on and if I had rated it then it would have been a 2.5. Once the bottle got some air in it I was amazed at the changes. Huge fruity notes one day, fudgy another day. It turned out to be a pretty decent malt. Not a terrible price, $60 for 700mL (Einar I think was $45 for 1L and the better of the 2 in quality). Still I mostly enjoyed this one and will score it a 3.5. Cheers