Review #16: Highland Park 12 Year Viking Honor

Distillery: Highland Park

Region: Orkney Islands

ABV: 43%

Age: 12

Price: $55

Color: Color: 0.7 Amber

Nose (according to the wife): While there are a few pleasant notes in here—a little bit of nuttiness, a little bit fresh wood and medicinal peat—it mostly smells like solvent. Not pleasant.

Palate: Fruit cake and peat are the main note with some smoke in there. This is a very conflicted whisky however. Neither of the notes seem to want to be the star of the dram, both just want to be supporting characters in this production. It reminds me of a confused teen who really, really needs to consider what they want to do when they grow up because being both a monster truck driver and an environmentalist can be difficult. This one does have a nice and smooth mouth-feel, which is pleasant.

Finish: The finish is short and bitter. Didn’t pick up a whole lot out of it.

Conclusion: For being /r/Scotch’s favorite whisky to review, I was excited to jump into this one. However as I mentioned in palate, this one has some conflicts to work out. If something in flavor palate had been a little more front and center, I think this would have been far more enjoyable. Coupling this with a disappointing nose and finish, I doubt this bottle will not be finished anytime soon. This was my first taste of a Highland Park, part of me is wondering if the original HP12 would be better than the HP12 Viking Honor.

Final Score: 72

Scotch whisky review #16, Island review #1, Whisky Network Review #17

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection.
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.