Reviewed by @galg

0 690/100

Nose: Sweet, Port like. Oodles of cinnamon,vanilla, and spices. Feels like a bourbon nose. And i mean that in a positive way. fun fun fun!

Palate: What an impact on the palate this one has. sheer power (almost 60% ABV), and all is pretty darn good. Again, sweet, a combination of Bourbon and peat. what a nice idea. We loved it.

Finish: Sweat heather , then some smoke.

Bottom line :

I’m glad i talked Kfir in to get this one at WL 2010. It’s a one of a kind HP, very special, and very good. I was not the only one feeling like it. Too bad Kfir does not care for it (as i told him, i will gladly accept this as a token of his friendship ). I wish i could get one of the shelf (hint). only 600 beauties ever made. such a pity.

@dbk commented:

I was really disappointed to find that this bottling—in fact, NO special bottling from any distillery—was made available for buying or even tasting at Whisky Live in Toronto. By the sound of your review, I sure would have liked to bring a bottle back home with me.

@dbk commented:

Actually, I'm not so sure that you do! I'm assuming by "200% tax" you mean a 100% markup in taxes over the original price. Our "taxes"—as in, the markup by the government agency—on whisky are similarly outrageous. Certain locals have noted that anything less than a 60% markup is a "good" deal by our standards, but I have regularly found markups well over 100%.

Anyway, let's not compete over who has it worse—let's sort out how we can make it better!

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Reviewed by @galg

0 090/100

Nose: What a great nose on this young HP. Honey mixed with dried sultanas , some lovely smoke with a sweet edge to it, and then finally some oak. On second sniff i am getting some Wood varnish, and some more smoke. lovely, lovely. The essence of HP. young and kicking.

Palate : Sultanas , dried fruit and brown sugar galore. some hints of bananas. Vanilla. Oak in the middle then finishes on the dried fruit theme. Yummy.

Finish : Long. sweet fruit, Smoke and dying on cocoa and a wee bitter edge

Comment on @galg's review

Reviewed by @markjedi1

0 783/100

Highland Park released this bottle to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the London festival WhiskyLive (which took place in February 2010). I was lucky enough to have a member of this community (thanks @Stu_R!) to send me three bottles.

Only 600 were created at a cask strenght of 59,3% ABV. The cask was handpicked by famous whisky writers Rob Allanson and David Broom.

Let me say beforehand that this is only my second HP so far. I only had the HP 12 before and didn't make any notes at the time, so I have little to compare this dram to.

The color is a beautiful gold on the verge of amber. The legs in the glass are magnificent.

Straight

The nose is grand, with soft peat, caramel and dried fruit, primarily raisins. Quite grown up. The high ABV doesn't 'sedate', if you know what I mean. It hides it's young age wonderfully.

It has a silky mouthfeel with sweet caramel and dried fruit from the nose doing a fantastic pas-de-deux with the slightly bitter peat. There is also some heather and brown sugar with some caramelised orange peel to make it complete. Masterfully spiced.

The finish is very nice and long with spicy caramel playing first violin.

Nevertheless, this is a bit too hot for me.

With Water

Water doesn't do the nose any good, with slightly salty touches and even something like fried bacon. Luckily it is fast overtaken by sweet fruit.

It's better in the mouth, though. Almost chewable. Thanks to the lessened ABV, the caramel and heather come out nicely.

The finish remains long and spicy.

The bottle cost 50 quid at the festival and is almost sold out. There are still a few bottles left on the HP website (albeit at 55 quid). I quite liked this dram and got the complete range - bar the very expensive 40 year old and all are minitatures except for this one - and plan a complete HP tasting soon.