Highland Park's Valhalla Series

Haven't tried either yet. There are a couple of bottles of Thor on shelves in the city I'm in. I don't recall the price at the moment though... Anyway, I don't think I'll be picking up either bottle anytime soon.

They are prett, yet quite high for a youngish HP. I also haven't tasted either, but I actually hear better things about the Loki.

pretty

I just bought a bottle of HP 25 a few days ago for about the same price. I think if I were ever to buy a Valhalla bottle, it would sit in my livingroom as a testament to my love of whisky for years before I ever cracked the seal. My paternal grandpa was 100% Icelandic (though born in the US of A) and I just love the Scandinavian theme.

I've read the entire Poetic Edda and more of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Eddy. Loved every word of it, and studied Anglo Saxon and Icelandic for a year at NYU. Sturluson's in my family tree.

Still, I see your point, MCM. I do. Both bottles are quite spendy for 15 and 16 YO HP's with a fancy bottle design and a bit of wood to prop it up. I must say, though, they are quite handsome all the same.

I took back a bottle of HP from Scotland a few year's back and opened it in Oregon some time thereafter. Now, let me tell you, that bottle of northernmost distilled scotch is still among my best memories of any scotch I've drank. It was very pale indeed but the flavor was just remarkable. So complex and absolutely wonderful. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't share a drop with another soul. I just couldn't, and I've shared bottles three times the price with my friends. It was a personal experience drinking that fine fine scotch. Almost religious, like an otherworldly pagan ritual or something. Water of life, indeed. I stretched it out for the better part of a year, only sipping on it occasionally. Oh, how I wish I had another bottle that good in my cabinet. I would drink it on my fiftieth birthday in a few years. I have tried in vain to buy an 18 year stateside like that, but it just can't be found. I don't think 18's like that one exist any longer. It was the last of an era.

Judging by its pale color and how dark the 18's have been for the past few years, I think it might have been the last line of a dying breed. Still, the bottle of 25 I have now is dark and rich (from genuine years spent in a sherry cask rather than E150a) and I'm sure it will be delicious.

I would like to see a Scottish distiller partner up with an Icelander and make a good whisky in Iceland. The Icelanders need a good whisky distillery on their island.

I've tried both Loki and Thor and have Freya on my desk to write some notes for: blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2012/02/… blog.thewhiskyexchange.com/2013/03/… vine.co/v/MzgiehrrnIO

@rigmorole As you've read much more of the sources than I, what do you think about the 'Northern Lights are created by Freya's cloak' thing that I've seen in various places online. I've read elsewhere that it should be light from the Valkyries armour, but I'm still digging through the internet to try and find some decent sources.

I'm writing up some stuff about Freya at the moment and it seems to have shifted from being geeky about whisky to being geeky about the Poetic Edda and Snori :) Unfortunately I've read neither so am working from secondary sources, many of which I discover to be game manuals after a few minutes of reading...

Yes, Freya touches upon the idea of an "electric" universe. In some ways, the ancient wisdom touches upon prehistoric wisdom of perhaps a preceding technological age. We come across legends of giants.

You know, it's quite likely that the graves and skeletons of giants in the US were covered up in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It's possible that the world had a previous species of hominid that was seven to twelve feet tall. The Norse gods fit that bill quite well. It's amazing how legends are often rooted in a germ of reality.

At any rate, regarding legends of Freya in particular for your review, it's been a long while since I read much about the legends. Roughly twenty years ago when I was taking Icelandic classes at NYU. I hadn't heard that Freyja's cloak of feathers had anything to do with the Northern lights. Rather, they allowed her to shape shift into the form of a giant raven. When she traveled through the night sky along with her Valkyries, they were said to leave charged particles in the form of northern lights. I seem to recall she was associated with the full moon in legends.

Good luck writing your review, Cowfish! I will read it for sure!

By the way, whoever keeps leaving minuses next to these posts, regardless of what they say, is a complete child. Go back to your coloring books and crayons and leave whisky to the adults ; )

Here is a song for you, little man: www.youtube.com/watch

I know that the Valhalla series is all about marketing and it's overpriced, etc. But I like it. There is no way I can justify paying that much currently for whisky, but if I had the money, I totally would.

I think it's cool. I'm with you.

Too expensive for my blood, I'd rather the 18YO or 25YO for drinking.

As a collection piece, sure, why not.