Highland Park Valknut “Sweet Home Valhalla”

Everyone loves to talk trash about Highland Park, more so than Macallan. I think it’s largely in part to how far they’ve leaned into this whole Viking mythos, coupled with the sheer volume of new releases.

I personally don’t mind the whole Viking thing that much. What’s at issue along with other Edrington properties is that one feels as though the marketing department has taken over all aspects of the product. Anyone who’s watched early episodes of Mad Men will be familiar with the kind of cynical marketing techniques that cares very little about the actual product itself.

With this series they’ve combined several tried and true marketing techniques. “limited” editions (15,000 to 20,000 bottles isn’t really that limited), creating a new series of 3-4 scheduled releases and finally a story or myth to bind them all together. With the promise of more “sherry” and more peat what could go wrong? Let’s lean into this one.

Nose: Burnt hay, peameal bacon, it’s a bit closed at first, then opens up with vanilla & seaweed. The sherry eventually shows up and takes over the proceedings. Lots of dried grape, and grape candy, yeast, a bit of ink and plasticine and sulfur.

Palate: Ashy, mineral very sweet like glycerin and honey. Further time brings, vynil, old books, wine gums, faint smoke a touch of BBQ pork. Sour oak, stir fried broccoli, then the return of a lot of sweetness.

Finish: yeasty, grape reduction, a touch of balsamic and seaside. The finish is medium in length but mouth drying.

Blab: Underdeveloped nose. Sharp and stuffy peat. There’s sulfur but no depth to the sherry. Plenty of that weird plum/grape sweetness that is almost cloying like PX. I never thought I’d say that I missed dark origins but I do.

Highland Park – Full Volume “Half Mast, Half Stack”

This was dram #4 during an in-store tasting following the rather disappointing JW Ghost & Rare.

When I heard that Highland Park were launching a whisky called full volume, I thought they would be releasing some of their heavily peated stock at Cask Strength. Perhaps an edition composed of all floor malted barley a little like Laphroaigs’ 2015 Cairdeas? Alas no, this is all first-fill bourbon cask from a single distillation year (1999) at 47.2%…so basically this is the kind of thing that is normally sold to independents or brokers for blending.

Nose: Light smoke, latex paint, pencil eraser, honey a little mango, pineapple, dried papaya but the fruits are faint. It takes a while to open up, light citrus, oranges and lemon. You can feel the malt in the back an almost green raw grain feeling.

Palate: Caramel, earthy peat, round, sharp and full, barrel char, vanilla. A little coconut oil, the oak is present too, real forward and in action. Malty grain notes, like porridge with vanilla and lemon peel.

Finish : Quite lengthy, earthy smoke, camphor, honey candy, caramel, citrus zest and that latex feeling still.

This was pretty good, I don’t think it’s keeping much with the HP house style, (not that I’m an expert on it) which usually includes a varying proportion of Sherry casks. True HP fans will be disappointed in that aspect perhaps. I would love to spend more time with this but don’t think it creates fireworks

Highland Park Full volume

47.2% ABV

85/100*I took my time on this one but it’s still something I sampled in store so I’m only giving it an overall score, my standard method is multiple samples before reviewing so I can score each aspect.