I agree with almost everything that has been said about HP's NAS variety. But I have (for me personally) discovered two exceptions: This 'Twisted Tattoo' and the 'Dragon Legend'. Both I find to be overly successful ... even if they don't come close to the 18y :-)

@Jan-Kaselitz I agree. Unless you see NAS bottlings with exceptional ratings e.g Ice, Dark. Stay well away from the rest of the same same crap. Unfortunately the really good stuff like Ice is stupidly overpriced so if you can get old 18 then go for that. IMHO 25 was good but not worth the price. The only VFM when I bought it was the 18 year at ~$100USD.

@Jan-Kaselitz Be careful when buying whisky on eBay, it's often not the most trustworthy source, especially for more expensive bottles. Didn't buy there myself, but I know of some friends who got tampered fake bottles.

@Slainte-Mhath oh yeah definitely. I won’t be buying it again myself. It is a nice bottle to have (because HP definitely has a unique taste) and I think it will last a while. In the meantime I maybe get something more rare on eBay like the ones Lee was suggesting. My next „project“ is Arran where I just ordered a 21y bottle - let’s see how that turns out.

@Jan-Kaselitz I have tasted the new and old HP18 side by side, and had a clear preference for the old bottling. I am not saying that the 'Viking Pride' is bad, but taking into account the costs of that bottle, I'd rather buy something else.

@PBMichiganWolverine I heard that the new designed bottles that still have an age statement (like the 12y and 18y) are exactly the same just in a different visual style.

@jonwilkinson7309 @LeeEvolved @Jan-Kaselitz you might still stumble into an old HP with an age statement. If you do—-grab it. I think @geologyjane found an older age statement of the 18 (or 16), which were classically phenomenal.

Good review, and I agree completely. As much as I love the 18 and I think the 12 is great for the price, I've struggled with so many others. I bought the Twisted Tattoo based on a number of strong reviews, but I've tried it several times and I'm not totally impressed.

@Jan-Kaselitz - if you get the chance don’t be scared to try The Dark and The Light series, as well as the Valhalla collection: Thor, Loki, Freya and (most importantly) Odin. Those are 6 really good bottles under the Viking theme (but they all do carry age statements of 15yo or older).

@PBMichiganWolverine ah yeah that’s what @Slainte-Mhath was mentioning too. Well tbh I kinda really am fond of the 18y “Viking Pride” bottle I have. I have no comparison to pre-rebranding tastes and also would like to try the older ones some day too since I hear only good things about them.

@Jan-Kaselitz sorry—independent bottlers —so not bottled by distillery but a third party

@PBMichiganWolverine what is IB?

@Slainte-Mhath the IB highland parks still seem to be pretty good

@Jan-Kaselitz I have stopped to buy Highland Park when they started to abuse the Nordic mythology for their marketing. The old HP18 and HP12 were great whiskies, not to mention the superb HP25, but then things went crazy and there came this never ending flood of NAS expressions and the re-branding of their core range. I am done with HP, with the exception of independent bottlings.

@Slainte-Mhath I assume they want to fulfill peoples need to become HP collectors or maybe want to give people the impression that HP is to be collected. Don’t know. The only ones I liked are the regular bottlings. Everything else was just forgettable or simply just not good. But I guess in the end it still remains subjective.

@Jan-Kaselitz Well, it's quite simple why HP does all these stupid NAS expressions: there are still enough people buying them! With HP being under the same roof as Macallan, the overall strategy is the same, which is selling mediocre whisky with a fancy packaging at ridiculous prices.