LeeEvolved
Highland Park 10 Year Viking Scars
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed
September 19, 2019 (edited May 25, 2020)
This is a newer, European release exclusive, 10 year expression from Highland Park...and, yes, it has the Viking-theme designation: Viking Scars. (Rolling eyes emoji). This stuff is also so exclusive that they had to shrink the bottles to 35cl to make sure there’s plenty for the crazy high demand. I assume it was also diluted to 40% to help stretch it, as well. The only good part of all this is that I landed a bottle for $18.
Appearance-wise, it’s rich gold and really oily, with lots of runny legs and medium-sized, watery drops in the Glencairn tasting glass. The nose seems much closer to an ex-bourbon matured HP than their typical Oloroso sherry stuff. Apples, pears and orange wedges greet you almost immediately. There’s very little smoke, which has become more of the norm with HP recently. Oak tannins and heather round things out and there’s absolutely zero heat or ABV presence, but that’s no surprise really.
The palate focuses a bit more on the sherry cask notes: raisins and fresh-pressed grapes mingle with some orange marmalade. It has an oily and warm mouthfeel with hints of salty peat and smoke on the very backend. It’s very thin and sweeter than I expected, since I figured the youthful age would hinder this one and create a more abrasive and maybe give it a new make vibe. But, that’s not really the case. It’s sweet and borderline one dimensional. The finish is short, but vibrant and slightly harsh. Sherry and orchard fruit linger again, but cause it to lean a bit too dessert-like for my tastes.
Overall, I don’t know the real reason for this release. Small bottles tend to indicate something more limited, yet highly prized- and this certainly wouldn’t be considered prized. The diluted nature and 10 year age statement feel like they’re just trying to keep up with the Joneses. Oh, so and so has a 10yo release? We need to get in on that. Adding the Viking nameplate is an embarrassing move here, too. Everything about this screams mediocrity, so that’s the fitting score I will give it. 2.5 stars. The price is right, I guess, but I’m not bumping this score just for that. Just move along...even you HP fanboys, there’s nothing to see here. Cheers
18.0
USD
per
Bottle
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@PBMichiganWolverine I think they know it so well that someone in marketing is making a point about how the brand has been scarred by Vikings
@PBMichiganWolverine Yup 100% Agree. Unless it's highly rated e.g. fire and ice or light and dark I stay well away.
The number of new whisky releases worldwide is increasing exponentially. Way too much mediocrity out there.
@LeeEvolved totally agree. Their early stuff was amazing ( Valhalla series, and Fire/Ice). It’s these later ones, combined with their onslaught of sheer number of SKUs
@PBMichiganWolverine @jonwilkinson7309 - the early Viking releases were very good: the Valhalla line (Thor, Loki, Frey’s and Odin), The Fire & Ice were solid, and The Light and Dark are very nice. It’s when they started to use the names for strict NAS releases that they “jumped the shark” IMHO....and I think they may be realizing it- lots of the newer Viking stuff is also including an age statement. So now everyone should be well confused. (Even the 2019 vintage of the 40yo is in a Viking-etched bottle with some nonsensical display case) I hate to just abandon HP, but it’s getting hard predicting the quality inside each bottle release now.
@jonwilkinson7309 you bring up a really good point though—-they have got to know the Viking theme is a laughing stock. Any marketing exec worth his /her salt has to do a social combing of all review sites and compile a picture of their messaging . A site like this with 1000s of users has to be on any distillery marketer radar, and it’s so damn easy to comb through the feeds to draw a picture. Unless of course...their marketing exec is sadly ignorant of these social tools
Maybe they should have named it "Viking Piss" instead. On a positive note, perhaps they offered the smaller bottle so buyers would only feel half as gypped. (On a side note, I wish more bottles were offered in a 375 or even 200 ml size. I already have far more whiskey than I can possibly drink) I still love HP, but they're trying my fanboydomness. At the very least, I hope they soon realize they've beaten the viking theme to death.
I thought the general rule of thumb is if it’s a HP Viking theme, keep away.
Good review :-). Gees just when you think the naming convention can't get worse!