Hi whiskey lock I don't normally write anything about whiskey, but this bottle of Highland I have not had. I did buy a bottle of hp 12year old a few years ago, and it's still sitting on my shelves, it's one of the worst whiskeys I have ever tasted, I wouldn't buy a bottle of Highland Park if they sold it to me for $5.00 dollars, to me it's rubbish, I have over 200 bottles of different whiskeys, and in my opinion it's just not for me, and others have said the same, it was about $50.00 dollars out the door, hope you get a better experience than me, cheers Sir and keep the great reviews coming !!!
Thanks Frankie! IMHO QC on Highland Park 12 is not great so you may have a bad bottle (sadly I've had a few). Or it's just not for you! Thanks for watching and getting in touch :-)
Don't think we get the 10 year old in the US but we do get the 12 at 43%. Highland park has become a hunt for old pre Viking Hype bottles distillery for me. Last summer found the old 15, 18, and dark origins. Very nice. Cheers
I've always wanted to try HP12 at 43%. I think the 12yo has greater problems than just the ABV but HP Dragon Legend is 43.1% and does pretty well. I like it anyway. Do you think the whole range has gotten worse since the viking rebrand? I have two bottles of pre viking 18yo on my shelf and I was wondering that same thing just the other day. It's certainly more expensive now than when I bought those!
I'm guilty of not experimenting enough with water with anything that's already low ABV because I'm always chasing intensity of flavour... you may well be right though... Next time I shall try! Cheers 🥃
Berry Bros and Rudd indi bottling 12 yr Orkney at 46%, NCF and NC, IMHO showed us what Highland Park was missing. I am in full agreement with Sid regarding a little blending with a good cask strenght.
I feel the same about Whisky Exchange's A Fine Christmas Malt 2021. It shows you what the distillery is capable of. The search for a properly presented *OB* Highland Park continues ;-)
Cheers for reviewing this one. I've laid off it due the fact it seems to be taking over from (and for essentially the same price) the 12YO, which was one of my most regularly bought on-offer bottles a few years back. It's good to hear that despite it's flaws it's still demonstrates the potential HP have. I do generally prefer some sherry influence in my whisky though. Last I bought from them was CS Batch 1 which I thought it was okay, just wished it had been the same juice as the 12 but at CS. Going off of your reply to Atrixo, would you be accepting of the name "Viking Storm" if they a 46% NCF/NC/age-stated standard bottling? :P
I wouldn't be surprised at all if this replaces the 12yo and I'm with you that Highland Park is better with sherry influence in it. But the 12yo of today is so disappointing that I actually think it's a wise move to go with this more bourbonised style. Kind of the lesser of two evils... HP12 CS would have been great! Viking Storm isn't too bad for a name! Certainly no worse than Dragon Legend and Viking Scars. but if Highland Park were to offer a 12yo at 46% and full craft presentation they can call it literally whatever they want and I will buy it ;-)
Have to say I agree - I'm not one put off by the viking livery too much (and rather like the Dragon Legend design in particular) but 'Scars' is not appetising when you read it in a shop
Scars should come with a Viking axe with each bottle. I just keep walking past Highland Park due to low abv...I may stop and look for an 18 or something decent in their range. I am sure my store has the older offerings. It seems that I should give it a go. Is Highland Park in the Rock Oyster Douglas Laing line? I sure live Rock Oyster...never had the Rock Island... Sell me on it.... My favorite movie as a kid was called The Vikings.. I want to be a fan...
Free Viking Axe... that's a funny image but I honestly wouldn't put it past HP! The ABV really puts me off too and it's not easy to get around as most of their range is either underpowered or barely strong enough sadly. I do like Highland Park Dragon Legend and Valfather. And the pre viking 18yo is good although that too is only 43% and could be stronger. Very frustrating. Rock Oyster / Island has whisky from Orkney. So that's either Scapa or HP. I haven't had Rock Island yet either but I did like Rock Oyster. I doubt you can taste much Highland Park in it though.
@@WhiskyLock Hey thanks for the info. My store here in Siem Reap, Cambodia was stocked for the tourists. Loaded with HP, JW, The Mac...etc...I have a hard time buying 43% and have only 1..40% on my shelf. My 43% are Johnny Walker GD12 and Hedonism. My 1 40% is The Macallan sherry cask... I doubt I will buy a 43% 18...My collection is not growing in that direction. It a perfect example of why I want Glenfarclas 15...but, pass on the rest except 105.. It would be great to find a Highland Park Cast Strength .... Cheers...
@@jeffmill999 There are a few whiskies at 43% that are tempting (either good value or unavailable at higher strength) but you just know that they would be so much better at 46%+ HP Cask strength is a nice whisky in its own right but comes into its own when you realise that a little bit can be used to turn a 40-43% Highland Park into a 46-50% one without changing the flavours too much ;-) Highly recommended.
Uh, I was thoroughly disappointed by this. Too young, too bourbon, too alcohol😉 But I can in some way follow your point about the 10 being more interesting than the 12, because of having a little more edge. We had very similar experiences with Aberlours 10 and 12 year old. Cheers🙂
Viking Scars is definitely still a long way off from being a decent entry level offering from Highland Park but probably a slight improvement over the current 12 as a cheap, low strength budget dram. I don't know if you can get it over there but the only cheap thing HP do at the moment that I think is worthy of representing the brand is Dragon Legend. Its still only 43% but carries the flavour much better than the 12yo (or this). I tried Aberlour 12 again very recently and know what you mean. The lower tier Aberlours are the definition of mass produced inoffensive whisky and are very different to the expensive stuff. Cheers!
Can i ask you you a question whisky lock? Its not about Highland Park, i think there are so many distilleries that are better for my palate, i will spend my money elsewhere. I know u like new releases, where u able to get a bottle on a Lochlea bottle? Thanks
When you mentioned new releases I knew it was going to be about Lochlea ;-) Nope! No chance! I kept an eye on five different websites on the day of release and they were all out of stock as soon as they released it. I'm going to do a series on new releases soon but so far it's looking like Lochlea won't be one of them...
Spot on. As a cheap casual sipper it does the job. And it probably works better than what they're currently putting out under the 12yo label these days.
I got hold of this HP 10 YO in Australia and the bottle was both 750mL and 43% ABV. And for AUD$73, which is a good price. Not sure which market it got detoured from, possibly USA? Anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit and for much the same reasons as you, Mr Lock. It's livelier than the 12 YO and the extra 3% I had in my glass really helped the mouthfeel. This 10 YO certainly has some fans.
I may be wrong but I think it's only USA that uses 750ml bottles so you're probably correct in thinking USA. It was a bizarre decision in the 1970s to prevent people from importing whisky from other markets. It's also supposedly 1/5th of a US gallon so it satisfies the push for metric they were having at the time and their inability to let go of imperial 😉 Sad to say but I think this 10yo does a bit better than the current 12yo which has some serious problems compared to where it used to be. The cask makeup of this 10yo is probably a bit less ambitious but achieves it's goal more easily because of it?
Highland Park have never been known for their Peat Bombs and this one certainly follows on with that theme 😉 There have been a few peatier Highland Parks lately like Valkyrie and Valfather. I think perhaps Odin too. I think they're turning up the peat flavours but still nothing like Islay. Not even close.
I'd say that's a pretty fair price. It varies wildly here. At the moment I'm seeing it for as much as £45 online and as cheap as £20 as a regular supermarket special offer. I wonder how much it actually costs to make 🤔
That's a very good point and there will be lots of other people who enjoy HP for the balanced, light peat. If the ABV on this one were a little higher I'd probably be one of them. What's your opinion on things like HP Valfather, Dragon Legend and the Cask Strength if you've tried them? Do you prefer this?
Thank you Charis 🙂 I don't have a LinkedIn page at the moment but I will see about setting one up. It would be useful if I ever decide to accept samples for review. Cheers!
Hi whiskey lock
I don't normally write anything about whiskey, but this bottle of Highland I have not had. I did buy a bottle of hp 12year old a few years ago, and it's still sitting on my shelves, it's one of the worst whiskeys I have ever tasted, I wouldn't buy a bottle of Highland Park if they sold it to me for $5.00 dollars, to me it's rubbish, I have over 200 bottles of different whiskeys, and in my opinion it's just not for me, and others have said the same, it was about $50.00 dollars out the door, hope you get a better experience than me, cheers Sir and keep the great reviews coming !!!
Thanks Frankie! IMHO QC on Highland Park 12 is not great so you may have a bad bottle (sadly I've had a few). Or it's just not for you! Thanks for watching and getting in touch :-)
Don't think we get the 10 year old in the US but we do get the 12 at 43%. Highland park has become a hunt for old pre Viking Hype bottles distillery for me. Last summer found the old 15, 18, and dark origins. Very nice. Cheers
I've always wanted to try HP12 at 43%. I think the 12yo has greater problems than just the ABV but HP Dragon Legend is 43.1% and does pretty well. I like it anyway.
Do you think the whole range has gotten worse since the viking rebrand? I have two bottles of pre viking 18yo on my shelf and I was wondering that same thing just the other day. It's certainly more expensive now than when I bought those!
Thank you for the video . I think this one improves with a few drops of water !
I'm guilty of not experimenting enough with water with anything that's already low ABV because I'm always chasing intensity of flavour... you may well be right though... Next time I shall try! Cheers 🥃
Was looking for hp 10 review and i found yours! Thanks 👍
Great review as always.
Thanks John! Between the two of us we're giving Highland Park a lot of free exposure ;-)
Berry Bros and Rudd indi bottling 12 yr Orkney at 46%, NCF and NC, IMHO showed us what Highland Park was missing.
I am in full agreement with Sid regarding a little blending with a good cask strenght.
I feel the same about Whisky Exchange's A Fine Christmas Malt 2021. It shows you what the distillery is capable of.
The search for a properly presented *OB* Highland Park continues ;-)
Cheers for reviewing this one. I've laid off it due the fact it seems to be taking over from (and for essentially the same price) the 12YO, which was one of my most regularly bought on-offer bottles a few years back. It's good to hear that despite it's flaws it's still demonstrates the potential HP have. I do generally prefer some sherry influence in my whisky though. Last I bought from them was CS Batch 1 which I thought it was okay, just wished it had been the same juice as the 12 but at CS. Going off of your reply to Atrixo, would you be accepting of the name "Viking Storm" if they a 46% NCF/NC/age-stated standard bottling? :P
I wouldn't be surprised at all if this replaces the 12yo and I'm with you that Highland Park is better with sherry influence in it. But the 12yo of today is so disappointing that I actually think it's a wise move to go with this more bourbonised style. Kind of the lesser of two evils...
HP12 CS would have been great!
Viking Storm isn't too bad for a name! Certainly no worse than Dragon Legend and Viking Scars. but if Highland Park were to offer a 12yo at 46% and full craft presentation they can call it literally whatever they want and I will buy it ;-)
Have to say I agree - I'm not one put off by the viking livery too much (and rather like the Dragon Legend design in particular) but 'Scars' is not appetising when you read it in a shop
Who doesn't want a nice glass of scar tissue?... mmm...
Scars should come with a Viking axe with each bottle.
I just keep walking past Highland Park due to low abv...I may stop and look for an 18 or something decent in their range.
I am sure my store has the older offerings.
It seems that I should give it a go.
Is Highland Park in the Rock Oyster Douglas Laing line?
I sure live Rock Oyster...never had the Rock Island...
Sell me on it....
My favorite movie as a kid was called The Vikings..
I want to be a fan...
Free Viking Axe... that's a funny image but I honestly wouldn't put it past HP!
The ABV really puts me off too and it's not easy to get around as most of their range is either underpowered or barely strong enough sadly. I do like Highland Park Dragon Legend and Valfather. And the pre viking 18yo is good although that too is only 43% and could be stronger. Very frustrating.
Rock Oyster / Island has whisky from Orkney. So that's either Scapa or HP. I haven't had Rock Island yet either but I did like Rock Oyster. I doubt you can taste much Highland Park in it though.
@@WhiskyLock Hey thanks for the info.
My store here in Siem Reap, Cambodia was stocked for the tourists.
Loaded with HP, JW, The Mac...etc...I have a hard time buying 43% and have only 1..40% on my shelf.
My 43% are Johnny Walker GD12 and Hedonism.
My 1 40% is The Macallan sherry cask...
I doubt I will buy a 43% 18...My collection is not growing in that direction.
It a perfect example of why I want Glenfarclas 15...but, pass on the rest except 105..
It would be great to find a Highland Park Cast Strength ....
Cheers...
@@WhiskyLock Viking Axe would be a cool name for a Whisky with a sharp nose, earthy notes and a cutting aftertaste.
@@jeffmill999 There are a few whiskies at 43% that are tempting (either good value or unavailable at higher strength) but you just know that they would be so much better at 46%+
HP Cask strength is a nice whisky in its own right but comes into its own when you realise that a little bit can be used to turn a 40-43% Highland Park into a 46-50% one without changing the flavours too much ;-) Highly recommended.
Uh, I was thoroughly disappointed by this. Too young, too bourbon, too alcohol😉 But I can in some way follow your point about the 10 being more interesting than the 12, because of having a little more edge. We had very similar experiences with Aberlours 10 and 12 year old. Cheers🙂
Viking Scars is definitely still a long way off from being a decent entry level offering from Highland Park but probably a slight improvement over the current 12 as a cheap, low strength budget dram.
I don't know if you can get it over there but the only cheap thing HP do at the moment that I think is worthy of representing the brand is Dragon Legend. Its still only 43% but carries the flavour much better than the 12yo (or this).
I tried Aberlour 12 again very recently and know what you mean. The lower tier Aberlours are the definition of mass produced inoffensive whisky and are very different to the expensive stuff. Cheers!
Can i ask you you a question whisky lock? Its not about Highland Park, i think there are so many distilleries that are better for my palate, i will spend my money elsewhere. I know u like new releases, where u able to get a bottle on a Lochlea bottle? Thanks
When you mentioned new releases I knew it was going to be about Lochlea ;-)
Nope! No chance! I kept an eye on five different websites on the day of release and they were all out of stock as soon as they released it. I'm going to do a series on new releases soon but so far it's looking like Lochlea won't be one of them...
This is one I often ignore and walk past at the shop. You've piqued my interest... sounds decent as a cheapo casual sipper!
Spot on. As a cheap casual sipper it does the job. And it probably works better than what they're currently putting out under the 12yo label these days.
I'm looking forward to their next expression: HP 8 Viking Boils.
🤢...
I got hold of this HP 10 YO in Australia and the bottle was both 750mL and 43% ABV. And for AUD$73, which is a good price. Not sure which market it got detoured from, possibly USA? Anyway, I enjoyed it quite a bit and for much the same reasons as you, Mr Lock. It's livelier than the 12 YO and the extra 3% I had in my glass really helped the mouthfeel. This 10 YO certainly has some fans.
I may be wrong but I think it's only USA that uses 750ml bottles so you're probably correct in thinking USA. It was a bizarre decision in the 1970s to prevent people from importing whisky from other markets. It's also supposedly 1/5th of a US gallon so it satisfies the push for metric they were having at the time and their inability to let go of imperial 😉
Sad to say but I think this 10yo does a bit better than the current 12yo which has some serious problems compared to where it used to be. The cask makeup of this 10yo is probably a bit less ambitious but achieves it's goal more easily because of it?
@@WhiskyLock 🇨🇦 also for 750 ml plus higher ABV.
@@wilffalk6434 perhaps it's all of North America that has 750ml bottles then? 🤔
Not smokey? That would be my one description of it 😅
Highland Park have never been known for their Peat Bombs and this one certainly follows on with that theme 😉
There have been a few peatier Highland Parks lately like Valkyrie and Valfather. I think perhaps Odin too. I think they're turning up the peat flavours but still nothing like Islay. Not even close.
26 pounds in Russia. It’s alcodiscounter K&Б (Red and White) exclusive lol
I'd say that's a pretty fair price. It varies wildly here. At the moment I'm seeing it for as much as £45 online and as cheap as £20 as a regular supermarket special offer. I wonder how much it actually costs to make 🤔
12 y.o. same price. I think both doesn’t worth it
when it comes to strong peaty tones in whisky, I just don't like it. Not for me. This viking scars has great balance, very enjoyable whisky
That's a very good point and there will be lots of other people who enjoy HP for the balanced, light peat. If the ABV on this one were a little higher I'd probably be one of them. What's your opinion on things like HP Valfather, Dragon Legend and the Cask Strength if you've tried them? Do you prefer this?
Amazing stuff. As I have written before, this channel deserves at least 10 times more subscribers. Is there any LinkedIn page of yours?
Thank you Charis 🙂 I don't have a LinkedIn page at the moment but I will see about setting one up. It would be useful if I ever decide to accept samples for review. Cheers!
I believe a LinkendIn page of yours will increase also the number of subscribers.
@@lxiaspb I'll give it a go. Thanks for the tip!