Highland Park Viking Tribe Single Malt Scotch Whisky, 70cl

Product Information

In all honesty I've not done my homework, and correct me if I'm wrong but it seems like they are just slapping another Viking-like word on a new bottle!

Highland Park have maintained that it is the same liquid / recipe in these remaining classic age statements, and so we find ourselves looking at the eldest of the core range aged siblings, featuring HP spirit that has been predominantly matured in first-fill sherry seasoned European and American oak casks, aged for at least 18 years, and then married together and captured here at 43% ABV. The fact is, that practice has been happening for 40ish years now so I’m always surprised when people say that sherry casks now are worse than the ones from the 1990s. Maybe there are other factors at play? Maybe the duration of “seasoning” is shorter? As John said, there is a move to using hogsheads and American oak which naturally gives different flavour profiles as well. Its introduction to the distillery’s range follows last year’s complete brand overhaul, which saw the introduction of several new expressions.The oak spice and alcohol strength only really come into their own on the finale here. Those warm baking spices only seemed slight on the nose, then they started to amp up in the mouth and they just continue to grow as the liquid slips on down.

I am more than happy that HP does offer new limited releases once and a while, whether they have age statements or not and the Viking themed marketing behind them doesn't bother me either, HP is produced on an island with a clear Viking connection and if associating the whisky with the islands Viking past helps promote and sell it, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I thought the travel retail range now only has one NAS entry level whisky Spirit of the Bear, the other 3 whiskies that now make up the HP travel retail range now have age statements 14, 16 and 18 year old. Unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise, your use of and membership to the Service are exclusively governed by Dutch law. We shall first try to settle any dispute over a dram of whisky. Disputes that cannot be settled over multiple drams of whisky shall be solely submitted to the court of Amsterdam, The Netherlands unless mandatory applicable law provides otherwise.On the nose: I get a weak scent of peat and something leathery, dry and floral. Would this be heather? They’re followed by mild scents of apples, sandpapered wood, starfruit, pears and dried apricots. There are mild scents of sulfur; next, undertones of cloves, toffee, honey and banana syrup. After that, everything suddenly falls off. Tasted all that you mention except of course the new Viking Tribe and I couldn't fault one of them, also had some of the now discontinued NAS travel retail range such as Einar and Svein which were both very good and the Highland Park Sigurd which was superb. Admittedly Harald and Dark Origins NAS whiskies were not great but I wouldn't call them poor. Regardless of whether the Service offers the functionality to contribute, you are solely responsible and liable for any content and information that you create, upload, post, publish, link to, duplicate, transmit, record, display or otherwise make available on the Service or to other Members, such as chat messages, text messages, videos, audio, audio recordings, music, pictures, photographs, text and any other information or materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted (“Contributions”). For a spirit with sherry influence in it, I’m happy that the sulfur notes are negligible in both versions, for me at least. Even so, the VH is more sulphury. The VH has also retained some of the all-roundedness from its previous iteration. Still, the flavors, layers and coherence are all more pronounced in the old version, though this difference can be chalked up to the difference in proofs.

Highland Park really have been churning out the NAS whiskies recently. Not all of them have been great though. Highland Park Viking Tribe is a permanent new addition to the extensive Orkney distillery’s range, sitting alongside Highland Park 12 Year Old and Dragon Legend as the brand’s entry-level expressions. The bottle label features a symbol inspired by the Urnes knotwork, which symbolise togetherness, found on the Stavkirke churches in Norway. I’ve been waiting to get my hands on my own bottle of this for some time, and so, with a firm favourite and some, ahem, Viking Pride at stake, here we go… Viking Pride – Warrior SkySample disclosure: This bottle was a Christmas gift from the family. All notes are intended as an honest, fair and independent review of the whisky, and not as a promotion. Please drink responsibly. Please drink wisely. The Service has been prepared by us solely for information purposes to Members and the Service is based on information we consider reliable and we obtain the contents of the Service from a number of different third party sources (including Contributions), but we do not endorse, support, represent, warrant or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of the Services and any information therein. One of the reasons why wine casks are expensive is the wineries don’t like to let go of their casks. French oak and European oak are expensive as well. They hold on to them for a long time as they using casks only a few times would be expensive and the cask would still impart flavors of the wood. So what you’re getting with today’s seasoned still have a lot of wood flavor in them. Plus, there are a lot more seasoned casks now that use American oak vs the old days that used European oak. Different oak give off different flavors. the demand for sherry casks in the whisky industry has long since outstripped the supply the bodegas could naturally deliver. The thing people often don’t realise is sherry is made through a solera system so those casks are very rarely sold on. The article’s view is that until the early 80’s, sherry was transported in barrels to the UK, these are what we called sherry casks and were used in whisky. When that practice stopped, people started buying barrels and seasoning with sherry instead to try and get the same flavour.

Each and every Member must be of legal drinking age in its country of residence to be allowed to use the Service. If no such law exists in a Member’s country of residence, the Member has to be over 21 years old to use the Service. We have the right to ask you to provide proof of your age and/or to provide further identification to prevent underage usage and/or for any other legal or legitimate purpose. By using the Service, and by creating an account you represent, warrant and confirm that you are of legal age. But as you can not hurry nature cheaply produced seasoned casks will give you a cheap quality sherried whisky.

Delicious. Need I say more? Well, yes, I should. You can’t really read about this malt of late without finding comparisons between the old style and the new style bottling. Many people have put this new 18yo down, saying its not up to the age statement’s former glory. If this is true – and sadly I only have a distant, fond and fuzzy memory of my first HP18 – then that must have been some pretty bloody amazing scotch because this is still pretty great stuff as far as these tastebuds are concerned. HP18 Nothing in the Terms shall exclude or limit our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or for death or personal injury resulting from gross negligence or willful misconduct by us.