Highland Park Valknut

The Valknut is the second installment of what I'll call the Highland Park 'Valk Series.' It follows the Valkyrie (which I've yet to try). The third is the Valkfather, which I don't think has been released. There has been a recent proliferation of HP NAS releases. This one is of the more affordable and abundant of the lot. The Valk series feels like it's one level below the core range, if that makes any sense. They're not quite part of the core range, but aren't one-off, random releases either. Let's get into it. ***I came back to this one about a month or two later. A handful of reviews I did around this time came out strange and I'm thinking I burnt out my palate. I came back, and it's much better.*** Nose: Hardly any peat smoke is detectable. Instead its more of a sulfuric note. There is also some sweetness. Bubblegum, green apple, honey, toffee, and vanilla. There is also some cinnamon, black pepper, and clove spice. Walnut and sun-dried tomato round this one off, giving it a unique profile. Palate: Butterscotch, honey, vanilla, caramel, and toffee. Red berry (strawberry, cranberry). More of that sulfur note, but otherwise very little peat influence. Virtually no smoke. Some milk chocolate on the back end. Nutty and oaky. Finish: Moderate-long. Hot with cinnamon, black pepper, baking spice. Oak heavy. More of the sulfur and some delicious dark chocolate. This is a tricky one to rate. When I first cracked this a few months back, I thought that was a pretty good dram. Fast forward to last night, and I found it be atrocious. I had to postpone my review until tonight because it was so wildly different than I had remember it. I even compared to HP 15, which I'm quite fond of, and it held up. The nose, which was initially my favorite part of the dram, seems completely disjointed. That and the palate are overrun by the sulfur notes. I love those notes in Laphroaigs, but this one is too thin to in other areas to compensate for such a strong and potentially off-putting note. The finish was too harsh for 46.8%. I really wanted to like this one. And, strangely enough, I did when I first cracked it. But unlike with most bottles, I found that this one got significantly worse with time. I've had the HP 12 and 15, and now this Valknut. The score is: Age-Statement releases 2-NAS 0. I love the homage to Nordic culture as much as the next guy, but dammit Highland Park, focus less on the bottle design and more on what you're putting into it. ***Came back to this and I'm convinced that my previous assessment was a symptom of a burnt palate. The notes are much the same, but the nose is now pleasant, the palate robust, and the finish much more satisfying. Confidently bumped up from a 2.75 to a 3.5. I'm happy to see that as I'm finishing the bottle, my initial liking to this bottle was warranted.

A very generously shared 30 ml from the Oracle @cascode . I felt like a peaty treat this evening and this has been on the wish list to try for some time. The spirit used for this HP features a small portion of Orkney-grown Tartan barley, and was matured predominantly in American oak sherry seasoned casks. Allegedly coming in slightly smokier than standard HPs. Excited to dive in… N: Beautifully gentle vanilla and herbal (thyme? rosemary?) scented smoke are wafted along with raisins and perhaps some malty chocolate and a touch of honey. More gentle than I expected, but a beautifully savoury welcome to the dram. P: This is oily up front and the first thing that hits me is fennel-aniseed and barley. Helped along by a good dose of cinnamon there is some pepper as well to the spices. Dark fruits of raisins and fig and maybe some generic orchard fruit crispness are the sweet rescuers of the spice. I find toffee here similar in depth and lusciousness to the Highland Park 25 actually. When that toffee comes through the pallet softens and rounds out to a creamy fullness and reveals the soft delicate floral orkney peat.. F: Medium. Sweet and spicy smoke, some burnt bbq ends and some bakery spice with a hint of dryness are a wonderful close. Wow. The intensity of this takes things a touch above the standard age offerings of HP. Elements of the 12 and the 25 are there as well as some aspects of what i can remember of the 18 when i had that some time ago. Clearly this speaks to a highly varied choice of barrels. Everything though is turned up a notch and brings things closer to the peat levels of Talisker or even an Islay offering. This is a complex beast, and i do like it. I am a HP fan boy though. I would criticise it to say that in my mind some of the sherry influence is taken down a notch and I’d like it a little bit more balanced between the spice, soft elements of toffee and vanilla, and the sherry fruits. Water does level things out a little but I lose the toffee and the floral note. Personally, no water for me. Great stuff, well worth a try. (Pictured here with a Devonian Old Red Sandstone the same rock that dominates the Orkney Islands and forms the natural aquifers responsible for filtering the water used by the Highland Park distillery.) Distiller whisky taste #92

Nose: Warm sherry-tinged sweet smoke, musky raisins, herbal notes, a touch of honey, leather and dark ale or stout. After a while a lemon aroma comes forward and there is a fresh, coastal quality throughout. With the addition of water I get mashed “nips and neeps” (turnip and rutabaga to you foreigners) which might sound awful but it’s a delicious vegetal note. The dry glass aroma is classic Highland Park smoky honeypot. Palate: Oily smoke with spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and pepper), developing into fruity flavours (stewed apple with cloves, dates and figs) with a hint of vanilla, salted caramel and liquorice. The texture is oily and mouth-coating. The addition of water softens the spice notes just a little and brings out sweetness. It also changes the character of the smoke, making it softer and giving it more texture and an agreeable “mouth-filling” quality. Finish: Medium/long. Fruity smoke. A little leafy walnut-skin bitterness in the aftertaste but the final impression is of ale. Water brings a hint of sherry to the aftertaste. Highland Park goes slightly Islay, and does it pretty well. This one is a little more smoky than most Highland Park expressions and the quality of the smoke is more akin to Islay maritime than Orcadian maritime, but the smoke does not overpower either the distillate or the sherry cask influences. Water is not essential but highly recommended as it reveals facets of both nose and palate that you will otherwise miss. This obviously has a foundation of younger whisky, I’d guess 5-8 years maybe, however there is clearly some older spirit in the blend as well which is contributing depth and fullness to the profile. There is certainly nothing about it that screams lack of maturity and it’s definitely better than the earlier Valkyrie release in this series. The only issue I have is with the price, which is just a little steep. “Very Good” : 85/100 (4 stars)

info: Le Valknut est la deuxième édition de la série créée en partenariat avec Jim Lyngvild. Une partie de l'orge utilisé dans ce single malt a été cultivé dans les Orcades et vieilli en fut de chêne américain de sherry. N'étant pas un fan de Highland Park à la basse, une des raisons pour laquelle je tenais à gouter à cette édition était les bons commentaires relativement à la fumé plus accentué de cette édition. Nez: lingerie, thym frais, des herbes et du sel. Le sel fumé typique de Highland Park. Pelure d'orange. Bouche: Céréalier, graine de tournesol, agrumes, sel et fumé. Final: medium sur le zeste d'orange et la touche de fumé. Overall: Pas mauvais, je ne peux pas dire que je suis tombé à terre mais ça se prend bien. Une complexité intermédiaire. Ce n'est pas assez pour me convertir à Highland Park mais, définitivement plus près de ma palette de goût. Surprenant comme texture; assez grasse en fait. Laissez le temps à votre verre de bien s'oxyder, cela révèlera les notes de d'herbe et de lingerie. Pour ceux qui aime le style de Highland Park, c'est une expression que vous devriez vous procurer. Pour ceux qui, comme moi, n'est généralement pas fan de Highland Park, ça vaut la peine de s'y attarder aussi puisqu'il s'agit d'un nouvel axe qui ne recoupe pas l'habituel cercle d'arôme que l'on retrouve dans leurs innombrable éditions. On me disait que c'était dans la ligné du Dark Origin. Je ne trouve pas. Hormis la fumé de Highland Park, je ne vois pas ce qui recoupe ces deux éditions. Le Dark Origin était Sherry-fumé alors que celui-ci est plus sur les herbes, les céréales et la fumé. Pour le jeu de sherry et de fumé inhabituel, je recommanderais le Dark Origin au lieu du Valknut (selon mes goûts à moi). Bref, selon mon échelle à moi (60-69; passable, 70-79; bien, 80-89; très bien, 90-99; excellent), je considère que c'est un "très bien" mais plus près du "bien" que du "excellent": 82%.

The overall experience feels VERY formulaic. Not sure how else to put it. It looked, smelled and tasted like someone went in the lab to “construct” a Highland Park whiskey using some supposedly “true & tested” formula. As in... (and here please imagine a John or Jane Doe in a lab coat)... take equal parts single malt distillate, add x parts heather peat, then quarter parts sherry + y liters of water. Then shake and let sit for z hours. Then more purified water, and add 1/one millionth parts iodine + cold tar = Highland Park whiskey. Don’t know the exact formula but you get the point. Simply put, this pour has NO soul. I didn’t know there’ll come a day when I would describe whiskey in such an esoteric way but here we are. Sure it tastes like whiskey. Sure you can pick up some peat. And sure, you can feel the sherry. Then what? I guess HP was counting on the adage that says “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck”. Except it’s not. More like a plastic facsimile. Luuuucy! Ahem, I mean Hiiigghlaand Paaaark! You got some xplaining to do! Glad I got this on a close out sale for less than $35. I guess that’s why it was discounted. Skip this one. You should have no FOMO on this with confidence 1.25 - 1.5 ⭐️ Sláinte PoD!

My last review on the whiskies from the Highland Park Viking Legends Saga, this time for "Valknut", after having the great Valkyrie and the Not-so-great Valfather. Valknut etimologically comes from "Val" which is a Viking warrior and "Knut", a knot. The symbol to represent a Valknut is three triangles, the ones that appear on the bottle. Talking about the whisky itself, bottled at 46.8%abv, burnished gold color. On the nose, very greasy. BBQ sauce, glazed pork, grease, bacon. After having a first sip, aroma changes into a sweeter profile, with milk chocolate, vanilla. But BBQ is still there. Letting it breath more, will release more vanilla, but also a salty, maritime aroma. On the palate, it becomes sweeter as you take more sips. Starts with bacon, sausages, vanilla and oak spice. Second sip is lot of vanilla and salt. After a third sip, it has become super sweet, a pure vanilla flavor. Aftertaste is where it shows its Highland Park profiles. Smokey, scorched ground, pepper and salt. Prunes and burnt grass. Overall this is a balanced whisky, it stands between the Valfather and Valkyrie. An 87 over a 100 score is fair for it. For the price tag, it is a good dram.