Here we have one of the seemingly endless releases from Highland Park of late. This is a 10 year old that was released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Inspector John Rebus, a fictional character from Scottish author Ian Rankin. Now, I have absolutely no knowledge of this character or author whatsoever, but a couple years ago I entered into a drawing to win the chance to buy this bottle directly from HP and won. Little did I know at the time, but the distilleries in Scotland won’t deliver to the US. I was a little peeved, but I let it go...until I saw them at auction a while back. I would have my revenge on whoever it was that was responsible for me not being able to have this bottle initially. So for about $45 I was able to get it (I think the price from HP was around $40 so I didn’t pay much of a premium for it on the secondary market). Bottled at 40% ABV and is chill filtered and natural color of yellow gold. I seem to recall seeing something about there being 10,000 bottles released, but I could be way off on that. Speaking of bottles, this is a black bottle, which should be outlawed for obvious reasons. The nose is very earthy with vegetal peat, a very savory/umami profile. Some light sherry, Worcestershire sauce, cooked celery and water chestnuts. Faint smoke, sherried oak, raisins and figs. This is a very odd profile for HP, not like any of the others I’ve had. Pickled ginger, pineapple and teriyaki. It shifts to a more citrus fruit profile with lime, kiwi and lemon custard. Creamy vanilla, grassy/hay, lightly malty at times, heavily at other times. Caramel and Maple notes come and go. There’s also somewhat of a mineral/coastal note like seashells. The palate is very odd. Vegetal, savory, oak and earthy. Very light fruits like raisins, coconut, apricot skins, plums and dried pineapple. Faint smoke - just a whiff. A bit tannic and bitter at times, sweet at other times with hints of toffee and honey. A light bodied mouthfeel that is thin and creamy. The finish is medium short with peat, vegetal and distant fruits. Not at all what I was expecting from HP. Very different than their usual profile. A good value, but an average scotch. At times it showed some good flavors, but mostly it’s anemic and underwhelming. 3.25 Cheers