Just wondering, how many of your reviews are based on neck pours? When Andrew and I did the Douglas Laing Highland Park 20 at my house it was a neck pour and I wasn't all that impressed. Then weeks later it had really opened up and it blew my socks off, which is why I brought it to the Highland Park dinner that you hosted. Scott and Bart just did a review of the Ardbeg Drum CR and had VERY different impressions of it (Scott loved it!) but they were not doing a neck pour. Scott had tasted it a couple times before they did the review.
Skål! I am with Mark on this one. Confusing changes to their core offerings. I find the most appealing and interesting thing about HP now is that new screw cork.
Me too during a show, and it was second time I was trying the Valkyrie, then re-tasted the latter with a sample, and decided to buy me one....a greatly balanced classy HP, maybe lacking a bit of oomph, but better imho than the Valknut (too simple & too wood tech), but maybe I haven"t let the Valknut its chance...(didn't had a sample to be more sure of it). Cheers !
guys i'm a newbie to scotch coming from wine/beer (1 mo in)...bought the highland park 12 as my first scotch (as i'd read it's a great intro all rounder for scotch) ... and i do love it: on palette is a mix of light floral, honey, and has that really nice tobacco finish that doesn't knock you out ...so how does the tast profile on this valknut compare to the 12? is it too close in profile to buy or would compliment it?
I would say it is slightly smokier but the 12 is the better dram in my opinion. I would recommend trying out some different distilleries. We still find stuff from distilleries we have not tried that is amazing even after a couple of hundred reviews. Highland Park has some good stuff, but there is a whole world to explore. -Shawn
@@Scotch4Dummies oh yes I totally agree. I've ordered in talisker distillers edition kilkerran 12 glendronach 12 ...I'm also looking at ordering Bunababhain 12 and 18 glendronach 18...Bowman sampler of 12,15 and 18, I lengoyne 18...springbank10 too... I have to order in groups of 3 to 4 to average out the shipping costs at 40ish a shipment
Could you guys do Craigellachie 13 yr? Its one of my favorite scotches and I havent seen a channel show it some love yet. Its 46%, non-chill, natural color, and only $46!
OK, here's my take....excluding price as the 18 is pretty salty, I'd pick the 18 every time! Now that being said, I would throw out that for the price Valknut isn't a bad option. I also have to mention my frustration with HP and they range. It's like they don't have a direction, but just keep cranking out new expressions. It's going to end up hurting them as confusing the consumer never results positively. I see that they have a travel retail 18 that I would think is more considerable to the regular 18...so maybe keep an eye out for that. ~Mark
Congratulations on the linguistic research! And Mark's pronounciation is pretty much spot on: the k should indeed be pronounced! (I have heard someone calling it wahl nut; but (and I suspect it says so on the packaging) the "knut" part of the word is the same as modern English knot. Kudos on getting that "sharp" u sound just about correct, too! Two small quibbles: 1: It's not Celtic, it's Norse-Germanic (cf en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valknut) 2. A dry wine is a wine with little (perceived) residual sugar; what is classified as dry varies between districts and wine types: A "trocken" German Riesling from the Rhine can contain more sugar than a Riesling from Alsace, France,. The dryness you get in your mouth is very often a result of ‘young’, undeveloped tannins (a kind of acid) which stops/reduces the mouth from producing saliva: your mouth feels dry. A better descriptor might be "a tannic" wine. (Eg a young Cabernet Sauvingon-dominated Bordeaux).
Excellent review gentlemen, the Highland Park Valknut is a conundrum for me since where I live it is about the same price as the Full Volume which is though to be a 17 yo expression. I kind of agree with Mark that there needs to be some more transparency on what casks are going into NAS like what John Glaser is doing a Compass Box. But the one that intrigues me is the new one the Twisted Tattoo. Cheers to great drams!
I'm not saying I don't appreciate their marketing, but I just feel like they're confusing their line up and in so creating somewhat of an identity problem. I love HP, but am so damned confused on their range at the moment that I don't know what's what! Now, CB and John Glaser...they get away with a wide range as that's what they do as a blender and they are super transparent about it. ~Mark
I'm thinking for that money give me the 17 year Full Volume! Granted there is no peat, so to speak, but that was a great dram we were served at the HP / S4D dinner!
Google deleted Google+ which has negatively affected RUclips and they are in the process of fixing it and some files may be in the process of being transferred between servers. So any files held on Google+ (such as images used for channel banners) were deleted and at least for a few days many people could not change their RUclips channel banner. But the error seems to have been fixed. The change may have also affected the video of quality of some videos.
Interesting review...for me this one doesn't rival with the Valkyrie, and I'm curious about the last of this series to be coming soon...It seems that with the last expressions the distillery released those last years (since Dark Origins-some would say "the begining of the end...") they are afraid to let the whisky talk and keep some character, so many elements are muted & wood technology systematically involved, but it's just my opinion....I'm still waiting for a stunning one ...under 150 €!
A stunning one under £150? Keep dreaming my friend. It says something though about the current state of things that people contemplate spending over £100 to find stunning whisky. I honestly think that Edrington don't give a crap about genuinely good whisky. How many expressions have Highland Park and Macallan come out with in the past few years. It must be dozens. Anything under 20 years old seems to have gone down in quality and up in price. A lot of NAS; a lot of dabbling with various wood experiments; a lot of marketing to hide the fact that they are no longer prepared to invest in decent barrels and let the whisky mature properly. I will add that demand for sherried whisky has grown at a much faster rate than sherry production. Nevertheless I see no reason for selling massively overpriced product. Pernot Ricard are no better, ditto Suntory. They're all just shamelessly chasing the dollar with little regard to their long term reputation.
I get your point Daniel, but "suffer" I don't completely agree with you @@welshtoro3256 as among the whiskies I awarded for year 2018 there are at least 2 whiskies under 120 € (Lot 40 CS & PORT ASKAIG 100 Proof) & I maintain there are stunners...Are they from Edrington Group though? Definitively not ! "The talent is elsewhere"...Cheers !
I had a bottle of the ED2 which I enjoyed very much but it was overpriced. £50-65 in my book. Is it better than other sherried whisky at that price, including independent bottlers? I don't think so. We really aren't missing anything Gregoire. As a whisky drinker, of some vintage, I've moved beyond trying everything because there's some noise.
Sorry Anthony, I screwed that up and got trigger happy hitting reply without double checking that I wrote the website and not the email addy.. scotch4dummies@gmail.com ~Mark
I got this and the Valkyrie for Christmas. I have a problem with Highland Park (Rip Off) and so I was cynical going in on the two of them. Initially my suspicions were confirmed but both of them have grown on me. I think these are better than regular Highland Park for the same money. If you look at my history you will see that I am harsh on Highland Park but I get no sulphur. Light peat and sherry and it's not too expensive. My feeling is that it ought to be £35-40. Edrington screw us because they wont age statement (ignore the bullshit) but if they did I would have more respect. Great review guys. WT
Scotch regulations do not allow them to put an age statement on the bottle and then additionally claim that there are older whiskies blended in
Just wondering, how many of your reviews are based on neck pours? When Andrew and I did the Douglas Laing Highland Park 20 at my house it was a neck pour and I wasn't all that impressed. Then weeks later it had really opened up and it blew my socks off, which is why I brought it to the Highland Park dinner that you hosted. Scott and Bart just did a review of the Ardbeg Drum CR and had VERY different impressions of it (Scott loved it!) but they were not doing a neck pour. Scott had tasted it a couple times before they did the review.
Skål! I am with Mark on this one. Confusing changes to their core offerings. I find the most appealing and interesting thing about HP now is that new screw cork.
Yeah, mark is right with expensive NAS. I don't care how old it is, but i would like to know and see it on the label.
LOL! It's truly something when the most interesting thing about a bottle of whisky is its cork.
I really hate to be so negative on a distillery I love, but I'm also going to call it the way I see it and hope for the best!
~Mark
Thumbs up. I too, was disappointed with the Valknut compared to Valkyrie. I uncorked the bottle back in November. It just needed time to open up.
Me too during a show, and it was second time I was trying the Valkyrie, then re-tasted the latter with a sample, and decided to buy me one....a greatly balanced classy HP, maybe lacking a bit of oomph, but better imho than the Valknut (too simple & too wood tech), but maybe I haven"t let the Valknut its chance...(didn't had a sample to be more sure of it). Cheers !
Great review. Still waiting for a highland park that draws me in.
Glenrothes 18
Great review as always -- With Purdue heading to sweet 16 - what’s the celebration scotch for the dummies ?
Nice review! I appreciate when there is an opposing opinion, it kind of let me know what the risk factor is on the bottle.
guys i'm a newbie to scotch coming from wine/beer (1 mo in)...bought the highland park 12 as my first scotch
(as i'd read it's a great intro all rounder for scotch) ...
and i do love it: on palette is a mix of light floral, honey, and has that really nice tobacco finish that doesn't knock you out
...so how does the tast profile on this valknut compare to the 12? is it too close in profile to buy or would compliment it?
I would say it is slightly smokier but the 12 is the better dram in my opinion. I would recommend trying out some different distilleries. We still find stuff from distilleries we have not tried that is amazing even after a couple of hundred reviews. Highland Park has some good stuff, but there is a whole world to explore.
-Shawn
@@Scotch4Dummies oh yes I totally agree. I've ordered in talisker distillers edition kilkerran 12 glendronach 12 ...I'm also looking at ordering Bunababhain 12 and 18 glendronach 18...Bowman sampler of 12,15 and 18, I lengoyne 18...springbank10 too... I have to order in groups of 3 to 4 to average out the shipping costs at 40ish a shipment
Could you guys do Craigellachie 13 yr? Its one of my favorite scotches and I havent seen a channel show it some love yet. Its 46%, non-chill, natural color, and only $46!
I did that one four years ago right here:
ruclips.net/video/7oijYzQCTJU/видео.html
Great review guys and nice to meet u all in Chicago 👍🏽
What a great time in Chicago! Wonderful to meet you too and hope to see you online and in the future at such fun events!
~Mark
I was debating getting this or the 18. Since the 18 is my go to I chose it but thinking I should try this. Would you recommend this over 18
OK, here's my take....excluding price as the 18 is pretty salty, I'd pick the 18 every time! Now that being said, I would throw out that for the price Valknut isn't a bad option. I also have to mention my frustration with HP and they range. It's like they don't have a direction, but just keep cranking out new expressions. It's going to end up hurting them as confusing the consumer never results positively. I see that they have a travel retail 18 that I would think is more considerable to the regular 18...so maybe keep an eye out for that.
~Mark
Congratulations on the linguistic research! And Mark's pronounciation is pretty much spot on: the k should indeed be pronounced!
(I have heard someone calling it wahl nut; but (and I suspect it says so on the packaging) the "knut" part of the word is the same as modern English knot. Kudos on getting that "sharp" u sound just about correct, too!
Two small quibbles:
1: It's not Celtic, it's Norse-Germanic (cf en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valknut)
2. A dry wine is a wine with little (perceived) residual sugar; what is classified as dry varies between districts and wine types: A "trocken" German Riesling from the Rhine can contain more sugar than a Riesling from Alsace, France,.
The dryness you get in your mouth is very often a result of ‘young’, undeveloped tannins (a kind of acid) which stops/reduces the mouth from producing saliva: your mouth feels dry. A better descriptor might be "a tannic" wine. (Eg a young Cabernet Sauvingon-dominated Bordeaux).
Thank you for your enlightening comment. I always enjoy reading through but even more so when I learn new things. Thank you for sharing.
-Shawn
Excellent review gentlemen, the Highland Park Valknut is a conundrum for me since where I live it is about the same price as the Full Volume which is though to be a 17 yo expression. I kind of agree with Mark that there needs to be some more transparency on what casks are going into NAS like what John Glaser is doing a Compass Box. But the one that intrigues me is the new one the Twisted Tattoo. Cheers to great drams!
I'm not saying I don't appreciate their marketing, but I just feel like they're confusing their line up and in so creating somewhat of an identity problem. I love HP, but am so damned confused on their range at the moment that I don't know what's what! Now, CB and John Glaser...they get away with a wide range as that's what they do as a blender and they are super transparent about it.
~Mark
I'm thinking for that money give me the 17 year Full Volume! Granted there is no peat, so to speak, but that was a great dram we were served at the HP / S4D dinner!
And of course, great review as always!
You Guys are great, you have a real advantage with 4 honkers and 4 pieholes to nose and taste, keep up the good work.
I also taste the old musty cellar note with Highland Park scotches. Not a fan but enjoyed the review.
Great video guys
Fun review!
Been waiting for this one!
Anyone else getting an odd flicker on the video for this one? It gave me a headache in pretty short order.
I see it as well. I'm hoping it's the RUclips processing still catching up. :-|
@@Scotch4Dummies Hopefully. I ended up just listening to it instead of watching.
Yup I have it too, a little distracting but audio is clear. Skal!!!!
Google deleted Google+ which has negatively affected RUclips and they are in the process of fixing it and some files may be in the process of being transferred between servers. So any files held on Google+ (such as images used for channel banners) were deleted and at least for a few days many people could not change their RUclips channel banner. But the error seems to have been fixed. The change may have also affected the video of quality of some videos.
I am glad you mentioned it I thought I was going crazy or my computer was getting ready to die.
Interesting review...for me this one doesn't rival with the Valkyrie, and I'm curious about the last of this series to be coming soon...It seems that with the last expressions the distillery released those last years (since Dark Origins-some would say "the begining of the end...") they are afraid to let the whisky talk and keep some character, so many elements are muted & wood technology systematically involved, but it's just my opinion....I'm still waiting for a stunning one ...under 150 €!
A stunning one under £150? Keep dreaming my friend. It says something though about the current state of things that people contemplate spending over £100 to find stunning whisky. I honestly think that Edrington don't give a crap about genuinely good whisky. How many expressions have Highland Park and Macallan come out with in the past few years. It must be dozens. Anything under 20 years old seems to have gone down in quality and up in price. A lot of NAS; a lot of dabbling with various wood experiments; a lot of marketing to hide the fact that they are no longer prepared to invest in decent barrels and let the whisky mature properly. I will add that demand for sherried whisky has grown at a much faster rate than sherry production. Nevertheless I see no reason for selling massively overpriced product. Pernot Ricard are no better, ditto Suntory. They're all just shamelessly chasing the dollar with little regard to their long term reputation.
I get your point Daniel, but "suffer" I don't completely agree with you @@welshtoro3256 as among the whiskies I awarded for year 2018 there are at least 2 whiskies under 120 € (Lot 40 CS & PORT ASKAIG 100 Proof) & I maintain there are stunners...Are they from Edrington Group though? Definitively not ! "The talent is elsewhere"...Cheers !
@@GregsWhiskyGuide Sorry for the rant. I didn't mean there were no great whiskies under £150, there are plenty but not from Edrington as you say.
Alas yes @@welshtoro3256 but I haven"t tried any Mac N° 1,2,3,4....Have you ? Rob seems to like some of them...
I had a bottle of the ED2 which I enjoyed very much but it was overpriced. £50-65 in my book. Is it better than other sherried whisky at that price, including independent bottlers? I don't think so. We really aren't missing anything Gregoire. As a whisky drinker, of some vintage, I've moved beyond trying everything because there's some noise.
Hey guys if i sent you a bottle to try on ypur show how do i do that and would you do that?
Hey Anthony! Email us at scotch4dummies.com . We can chat about it more through email.
~Mark
@@Scotch4Dummies can you please send me the full email address?
Sorry Anthony, I screwed that up and got trigger happy hitting reply without double checking that I wrote the website and not the email addy..
scotch4dummies@gmail.com
~Mark
@@Scotch4Dummies its ok to much whiskey for you LOL
Damn, you guys were talking all over Mark on this one.
Skål!
I got this and the Valkyrie for Christmas. I have a problem with Highland Park (Rip Off) and so I was cynical going in on the two of them. Initially my suspicions were confirmed but both of them have grown on me. I think these are better than regular Highland Park for the same money. If you look at my history you will see that I am harsh on Highland Park but I get no sulphur. Light peat and sherry and it's not too expensive. My feeling is that it ought to be £35-40. Edrington screw us because they wont age statement (ignore the bullshit) but if they did I would have more respect. Great review guys. WT