ContemplativeFox
Highland Park 18 Year Viking Pride
Single Malt — Islands, Scotland
Reviewed
November 15, 2020 (edited September 14, 2021)
Rating: X/23
I noticed that I was about to hit 800 tastings on Distiller, so I figured I deserved to get to do an easy, reasonably tasty one. So, for this occasion, I pulled down my nearly-empty bottle of Highland Park 18 that has oxidized far too much .I deeply regret not moving the juice to a smaller bottle, but here we are. This isn't representative of the actual quality of Highland Park 18, so I won't be trying to analyze it too much and I won't be assigning a rating.
The flavor is much flatter than it once was, but it still has a tasty richness. I enjoy the mild layer of smoke and peat. mixed with the rich, sweet fruitiness, sea spray, and aromatic spices (cinnamon, ginger, clove, and maybe a little allspice). The minerality in here is rich and goes very well with the sea spray. The fruit has a little bit of cherry with the apricot and tangerine flavors being more dominant. It's interesting hwo this dram combines the mustiness and complexity of an old scotch with the rich tartness of one aged for a shorter duration in a hot climate. Yet the rich malt balances the whole thing out. Very impressive, particularly given how greatly the oxygen reduced the complexity.
This is actually much better than I'd expected it to be given how significantly the oxidation had impacted it the last time I tasted it. It isn't the 21 I gave it previously, but It's at least a 16. If I had to rate this based on what I'm tasting right now, I think I would probably give it an 18 (or maybe a 19). That's as far as I'll go with rating it though. In terms of value for the money, this is acceptable at $120 even in its current state, though it isn't an excellent buy in its oxidized form when there are cheaper options like Amrut Fusion - or Wild Turkey Rare Breed, if you're willing to take a bourbon instead.
Really, if you're getting anything out of this tasting, it should be that some bottles (e.g. Springbank, Russell's Reserve, and Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Barrel Proof) improve substantially with time and oxygen, whereas others (e.g. this one) get worse. It's great to let bottles that benefit oxidize for a while, but you need to know which ones those are. Don't let this one oxidize. Do drink a good dram when you have something to celebrate.
120.0
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I know that many people think this is overrated, but I'd personally pay the $150 for this @WhiskeyLonghorn . The only thing that would give me pause is how quickly this bottle turned.
So the $150 question is should I shell out for this?
Thank you @PBMichiganWolverine and @Soba45 ! :)
Congrats on 800!
Wow...800+ reviews! Impressive.
@ContemplativeFox You might have a point about the number of times to open and close the bottle. After all there’s not enough whisky in the bottle to justify 20 times - perhaps once a month then over a year? But I think the idea of dissipation is actually that by opening the bottle the alcohol fumes built up in the bottle will dissipate into the air, thus making room for more alcohol to dissipate when the bottle is closed again. Will this just weaken the spirit, or change it into something else? Ergo experimento :-)
Sounds like an easy place to start @CKarmios . I wonder whether with all of the opening and closing you'd be getting substantially more 'fresh' oxygen in that would increase oxidation and muddle the result, but otherwise it seems solid.
Hmm, one could try and use two empty 50cl glass bottles that seal with a cork and fill them both up to 1/3 with the same whisk(e)y. Keep one bottle closed for a year, and open the other one regularly, much as you would if you were pouring from it - say, twenty times. A side-by-side at the end of the period should reveal all :-).
Very interesting perspective @CKarmios . I've often wondered about the possibility of dissipation being a major contributor as well since the whole premise of distillation has to do with some compounds being more volatile than others. It would be interesting to try an experiment to find out whether there was a bigger change in the variety of compounds present or if the proportion of volatile compounds had dropped more significantly.
Good review and useful notes on oxidation effects. My two pennies on science: Oxidation appears to be quite active on tannins and as tannins are broken down by the oxygen they form new (and in the case of oak tannins, flavourful) molecules. I'm thinking bourbon being matured in virgin oak is more susceptible to this kind of positive chemical reaction as it would carry more oak tannins within the body. Having said that @ctbeck11 , I've read articles by people who disagree with the whole oxidation in a bottle argument. Instead they mention dissipation, which basically means that it's not the amount of alcohol in the bottle that accelerates oxidation but how often the bottle is opened, letting the alcohol out and causing the liquid to re-evaporate within the bottle. And, I'm thinking, the lower the level of liquid, the more evaporation within the bottle? So perhaps there are two mechanisms at play here to explain the change in taste over time.
A pattern I've noticed that may or may not be valid is that bourbon (and at least some rye) seems to generally improve with large amounts of oxygen (e.g. a ludicrous amount of oxygen took my last RR SiB tasting from a 16 to a 21) because it tames it while enhancing the richness and complexity. Scotch on the other hand, while often benefitting from some oxygen (maybe a couple months), has been more likely to lose its complexity in my experience. Based on this, my general rule is to always save some bourbon for at least 3 to 6 months in case it improves, but to try not to leave scotch open for more than 1-2 years. I may be blowing smoke here though. If anyone is an expert in managing a large collection for an extended period, that person would be @PBMichiganWolverine
Great question @ctbeck11. I have a lot of bottles open too, so oxidation is becoming an increasing concern for me and I'm starting to think more systematically about inventory management. This bottle was great for the first 3 months, at the end of which it was about 60% full. Sometime between 3 and 9 months it turned, during which time the volume dropped to 40%. At a year, the volume was more like 20%. Now it's pretty much empty, about 1.5 to 1.75, but I actually like better than I did when it first turned, so either it improved from there or I was just so disappointed that I marked it down further than I should have.
Oxidation is something I’ve been interested in recently, and there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions. Out of curiosity, how long did you have the bottle open before it become noticeably worse? Given the number of open bottles I have, I’ve accepted that I’ll be dealing with some changes over time. I’m hoping that the majority of them don’t change significantly, or if they do, that it’s not too obvious.