Review: Highland Park 18 Years Old Viking Pride (2024)

Drinkhacker was just a baby blog in 2008 when Chris last tasted the entire range of age-stated Highland Park expressions. Even with the 25-year and the 40-year (!) on the table, he kept going back to this bottle, the comparatively pedestrian 18-year-old. Today, this elder teen sits right in the middle of the Orkney Islands distillery’s Classic Collection (not including the insanely rare and expensive 54-year-old offering). Since a rebrand around 2016, it now carries the Nordic subtitle Viking Pride, but the basic DNA of this one remains the same: matured at least 18 years in a “high proportion” of first-fill sherry-seasoned European and American oak casks. It has been too long since we revisited this old standby. So without further ado…

On the nose, Chris was enamored with this single malt’s alluring baking spice notes and torched sugar sweetness when he reviewed it forever ago. Those qualities are still on display with a sturdy oak foundation that never lets things become too saccharine. What’s also showcased in this more recent iteration is a tremendous amount of dark fruit – brandied cherries, currants and grape skin – along with generous dark caramel and Bit-O-Honey notes. It’s an impressively deep aroma, gently laced with that distinct heathery peat smoke and lacking the brooding, winey qualities of some other sherry-aged single malts.

The palate is rich and honeyed with top notes of cherry cookies and almond torte. That bit of pepper Chris found is still in the mix, the only hint of spice in an otherwise round and soothing sip. The texture is almost creamy, in fact, enhancing those confectionary notes with brown butter icing and caramel drizzle. Bright fruits arrive on the midpalate, cherry again along with orange marmalade, before eroding into soft cocoa, sea spray, and tea leaves on a lengthy finish. A classic. Even if it isn’t quite the bargain it was back in 2008, it’s still an easy single malt to recommend.

86 proof.

A / $180 [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS] [BUY IT NOW FROM RESERVEBAR]

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